Led Zeppelin had it right back in the 70’s, even though they were referring to something other than the current ammunition shortage.

Recent ammunition shortages are nobody’s fault but mine…and the rest of the shooting public for that matter.

I touched on this a few days ago in the Shortages post but it bears repeating.  The ammunition shortages of the past year or so are a result of hoarding and panic buying by civilian gun owners.  Demand has spiked while supply has only gradually increased, leading to shortages along with higher prices.  Millions of regular citizens are causing the shortages, not some devious conspiracy by the Obama Administration.

Bob Owens over at Bearing Arms compiled data from the NSSF, GAO, and the NRA that clearly identified the source of the shortages.  Despite what the Black Helicopter crowd and conspiracy theorists say, the Federal Government is not buying large quantities of ammunition in order to keep it out of the hands of civilians.  Regular firearms owners (including millions of new ones) are buying more rounds while DHS and other government agencies are actually purchasing less.  Read the whole article, including the links he has included to get the full story on this.

His concluding paragraph sums it up best:

Put simply, it’s the hoarders and speculators, not DHS, that is drying up ammunition supplies. Until the speculation/hoarding cycle subsides, it might be a long time until we stabilize at our “new normal” ammunition consumption level as a nation of shooters.

As with most problems, the source is not “they” but “you.”