Here's the results from a poll I ran here a few weeks back:
Who's worried about the ammo situation?
My world will end, I am not prepared. 3.44%
I may be inconvenienced. 18.44%
I'll be OK as long as it doesn't last more than a year. 31.88%
I can weather this, no problem.46.25%
Now first thing someone is likely to point out is that CGNers are not indicative of the gun owning population as a whole. And you would be correct. As I suggested earlier, the average gun owner in Canada is likely quite content to have a few boxes of ammo for hunting on hand, maybe a brick or two of 22lr. And quite possibly are not even considering buying ammo at this time of the year or are even aware of a shortage or price increase. So then where is all the ammo coming into Canada going? There was a normal supply sitting on the shelves a few weeks back and now it's gone. Where did it go?
Anybody think it's the 3.55% of CGNers that think their world is coming to an end? While they may be stocking up, the numbers certainly don't look sufficient to affect the supply of ammo coming into the country. Even if you couple the "may be inconvenienced" group in with then the numbers are still quite small.
So now we are left with the "good for a year" and "no problem" groups totaling 78%. These are the likely suspects, they already admit to having 1year+ of ammo on hand but must still buying quantities that affect the amount of ammo on the shelves.
Hoarders. The only explanation.
And there you have it, the world ammo situation according to joe-nwt.
You're welcome.
There are a few points I disagree with, Joe, though I certainly appreciate your continued participation in the discussion and respect your opinion.
Firstly, is regional differences. Especially in urban vs rural areas. It is pretty evident that gun friendlier urban centres are experiencing tighter supply than rural centres or urban centres with more restrictive selective enforcement and I think this is best attributed to a radically different market dynamic.
Before I was in the business of making babies, for a few years, I was heavily involved with IDPA shooting for which I would easily shoot 50 rounds a week for personal practice, plus 100-150 rounds per week during my clubs holster night, plus 300-400 rounds per month, during the spring and summer on matches. I know many of the top competitors would do at least that or more - meaning a budget of 8000 - 10,000 rounds annually is what a pretty serious Action handgun shooter would allocate.
Lets say a more casual shooter would shoot half as much, 4000 - 5000 rounds. Even further down the line, a handgun plinker will keep around 1000 rounds (I just helped two friends source that much).
Thus, I partially disagree with your assertion that the majority of gun owners in Canada are low volume shooters who consume very little ammo, and even if they are, the small minority of action shooters account for an enormous volume of rounds down range, and free markets certainly are not democratic (and that's a good thing).
Now the second thing I disagree with is that the hoarders necessarily the drivers of the shortages we are experiencing. To clarify, good or bad, I will label the IPSC/IDPA/etc. shooters who buy thousands of rounds of ammo as the "hoarders," because we all are and we know it (by your definition above of "the majority" we certainly are).
Within my locale, and I believe in other action handgun rich communities, there was no noticeable thinning of available supply until about January. My wife and I regularly shop at Walmart, and I go to Canadian Tire on a weekly basis - and I ALWAYS check the ammo cages in both stores every time we go to either store.
I have thus far been focusing on .22's because they are the universal caliber that EVERY gun owner ends up with at some point. Controversial as it may sound, if you shoot guns and don't shoot some sort of .22, something is wrong with you. That being the case, I consider .22 ammo supply and availability to be a barometer of the sentiment in the gun and ammo market.
Now, there was no noticable shortage of .22 ammo in Canada until January, and after the 2008 - 2009 panic, I have been regularly been "hoarding" ammo when the prices came down and supply was abundant. In that time, I have never experienced supply disruptions of the magnitude I am seeing now. What changed?
Obama was reelected and in response to the seemingly weekly mass shootings and terrorist attacks, his administration has been very vocal about implementing stricter gun control measures. Add to that, the mainstream media, who we all know Is the bag of the US government, has been ramping up anti-gun sentiment none stop for the past 3-4 months. Just glance at the media and politic sections here on cgn.
The thing is, gun control ALWAYs comes up as an issue when a left wing government is trying to distract the general public from dismal economic reality. When a right wing governments in power, it generally is terrorism or war. Sometimes the two overlap.
If you follow financial and economic news, you will see there has not been more dismal economic news, especially for the US, in living memory. We are living through an economic depression that mirrors the 1920s, but the only difference is this time around, we have the Internet and we are not on a gold standard. As long as that reality continues, you are going to here more and more from the MSM and from the US government about gun control.
This, I believe, is the real driver of consumption habits in the gun and ammo markets. People who are scared the government is going to take their guns or gun rights are more apt to fight for them, and pay less or no attention to the fact that the government is actively taking away their wealth and standard of living.
This shortage is government created, not supply or demand created. The thing is, all markets in Western democratic countries are centrally planned - including and especially the gun and ammo markets.
Governments are NOT stupid in this regard - they are just evil - and I am completely certain this action in the gun and ammo market is engineered by the government for a very specific reason.