Ammo Conspiracy Theory?

I am not all that much into conspiracy theories although I readily admit one should be prepared for things like tyranny, government abuse of our rights, civil unrest, a police state, military takeover of our nation and so forth. Yet, I do have a kind of, a sort of, a maybe conspiracy theory of my own and I cannot figure out why the conspiracy theorists have not been jumping all over it for months already. My theory, simply put, is that the current government administration, or someone else, has somehow conspired to cause a shortage of certain types of ammunition for commercial sales to the public. If not them, perhaps the ammunition industry has conspired to cause the shortage of ammo that we have been facing for well over the past several months. 

 

Let’s look at the facts. Ammunition such as 5.56x45mm and .223 are in extremely short supply. Sure, gun enthusiasts, Doomsday preppers, conspiracy theorists and others have been buying it like there was no tomorrow. The government has also bought or contracted to buy huge amounts of it for its civilian forces. In addition, the military has bought more than the lion’s share over the past few years. Yet, regardless of wars raging and federal law enforcement using said ammo, there has always been more than enough to go around, that is until the past 6 to 9 months or so. Now, there is not one online dealer that I can find who is currently offering NATO spec 5.56x45mm 62 grain ammo by the case or half case without asking super high price gouging prices for it and even they only have a very short supply. It has been that way for weeks if not months. While there had been a small supply of it over the past half to three quarters of a year, it was consistently dwindling and is now virtually nil.

 

While you may think that due to people buying it up for whatever reasons, it seems strange to me that not one major manufacturer seemingly has supplied new stock to the market or if they have done so then it seems odder still that the distributors are not offering it for sale. For example, TheSportsmansGuide.com has several offering of 5.56x45mm ammo shown on their website but all are shown as either back ordered or out of stock. In fact they show some different brands as not expected to be back on the shelves until March, July and October of 2013. I checked with at least 10 major ammunition retailers, to see if they had 5.56x45mm ammo available in bulk with these results: NatchezShootersSupply (out), Ammoman.com (store closed due to number of orders, none available), MilitaryShooters.com (none available), AmmunitionToGo.com (all sold out), CMP (unavailable), Sportsmansguide.com (all on back order), SGAmmo (nothing available), Brownell’s (out of stock), MidwaUSA.com (either unavailable, out of stock or on back order)  CheaperThanDirt.com (one brand in stock in bulk). CTD advertised Lake City Ammo in a 1,000 round case at $999.00 which as far as I remember is about two and a half to three times what it was selling for 6 to 9 months ago and is well above 100 percent more than it was selling two months ago at most dealers.

 

Manufacturers not making more of it and sending it to retailers, when it is selling as if their will never be any ever available again, just does not make sense unless there is something preventing them from manufacturing and distributing it. I have checked the news sites and have not seen any reports of shortages of the raw materials, I have not seen us get involved in any new conflicts requiring more for the government, I have not seen foreign manufacturers nor domestic manufacturers complain that they cannot keep up with the demand, they just are jot doing it. I still think that maybe the government has been involved somehow but its only a thought. Maybe some new Customs restrictions on imported ammo preventing such from entering, maybe secret UN dealing to which President Obama has agreed, maybe contractual restrictions placed on domestic manufacturers between the manufacturers and the government preventing them from selling it to the public (this would be fiscal suicide for those companies), maybe just DHS and other federal departments and agencies buying so much of it that there is none left for the private citizen and yes they have been contracting for an awful lot of it lately. 

 

Or maybe the conspiracy, if a conspiracy at all, is not so much one effected by the government or the manufacturers but by they who fear that ammo will soon be unavailable. That would be anyone who believes the government is destroying our Constitutional rights and our liberties and buying it like crazy. Whatever it is that is responsible, one thing is certain, there is a definite shortage of 5.56x45mm NATO spec ammo (as well as run of the mill .223) and the well is almost bone dry. It has not been getting any better either. 

This issue is not limited to 5.56x45mm and .223 ammunition. Another caliber of ammo with similar shortage problems is 7.62x39mm. Is it a coincidence that both are the most popular calibers in so called "assault weapons"? I recently placed an order for a 640 round 'span can' of this caliber ammo, that was "In Stock" when I ordered it to find out, today as I wrote this blog post, that my order is on back order! A check with the company from which I ordered it shows that no ammo in this caliber is available (except for blanks).

My guess would be that soon other calibers will also be in very short supply but not in my ammo locker. We are now in conservation mode around here just waiting for whatever tomorrow will bring and wondering where is all the ammo and where are all the conspiracy theorists on this one.

All the best,
Glenn B