Wednesday, September 23, 2009

...and pass the ammunition

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NEW ORLEANS — Bullet-makers are working around the clock, seven days a week, and still can't keep up with the nation's demand for ammunition.

Shooting ranges, gun dealers and bullet manufacturers say they have never seen such shortages. Bullets, especially for handguns, have been scarce for months because gun enthusiasts are stocking up on ammo, in part because they fear President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress will pass antigun legislation - even though nothing specific has been proposed and the president last month signed a law allowing people to carry loaded guns in national parks.

Gun sales spiked when it became clear Obama would be elected a year ago and purchases continued to rise in his first few months of office. The FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System reported that 6.1 million background checks for gun sales were issued from January to May, an increase of 25.6 percent from the same period the year before.

"That is going to cause an upswing in ammunition sales," said Larry Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association representing about 5,000 members. "Without bullets a gun is just a paper weight."

The shortage for sportsmen is different than the scarcity of ammo for some police forces earlier this year, a dearth fueled by an increase in ammo use by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We are working overtime and still can't keep up with the demand," said Al Russo, spokesman for North Carolina-based Remington Arms Company, which makes bullets for rifles, handguns and shotguns. "We've had to add a fourth shift and go 24-7. It's a phenomenon that I have not seen before in my 30 years in the business."
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The article then goes on to say we'll buy 2 billion MORE rounds of ammunition this year, than we did last year. If I was an elected official, I'd be paying very close attention to this trend.
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Armed and Dangerous Schteveo

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you even think you don't have enough, you don't. I am hesitant to go to the range cause I might really, really need those bullets I'm putting through paper.

Anonymous said...

Don't use paper, use beans. Human beans.

Jimbo said...

That's what I call stimulus.

Hobama failed to stimulate the auto industry, he failed to stimulate the banking industry, he failed at ALL of his stimulus tar-babies - except for the firearm industry which was the LAST thing he wanted stimulated (other than, maybe, Misshell).

I bet Bible sales are way up, also.

"Human beans" - LOL!

"Grammie" or whatever name he wants to call me!! said...

Yep... We're "stimulating" the economy as fast as we can, at least as fast as Maobama is taking it down. Me thinks this is a collision course.

BOW said...

He's stimulating socialism by sucking the money out of every sector of private society and throwing it at non-productive sectors

Schteveo said...

C-Bug has it, I fear.

It's surely a push-comes-to-shove situation in front of us. I for one will not go down under the future madness without a hell of a fight. That's the reason I'm moving out of the city, into the country, in the middle of NC farm land, well away from interstates, State Highways and normal infrastructure. I want to be in a place where rioting and insanity are NOT necessary or likely. A place where I can grow some food, where others are likely to do the same and would be willing to pool resources.

Currently I'm a block from the grocery store, in a huge student ghetto area, less than a mile from the interstate, 3 miles as the crow flies from the center of the city, in a non-defensible apartment building filled with 20 somethings and (probable) illegal aliens. I'd have to post a guard to protect any thing I wanted to grow here for food. This looks like the kind of place where stupidity will reign if things go badly. It would be a dog eat dog world here I expect, and I'm not Chinese or Korean.

Again, I offer Gerald Celente as the Voice of Doom. He's been right too often to ignore I think. And when the shit hits the fan, I want to be heavily armed, and well ammo'd.

Click my Doom for a recent article about GC over at Human Events.com. It's scary schtuff.

Missy said...

i have a small town in the mountains of pennsylvania away from anything and everything that i would run to. It has several fresh and clean water sources, enough area that can be cleared to plant crops, and enough wildlife to sustain a small community for quite some time. The mountains are also more defensible then flatlands.

Ernest T BassPoot said...

Awl ya'll needs id a reel Mowtane man ta take kare ub yo sweet thang ub der own der kool nites der Missy grrrrrrrl.

I'll nibba own yer lil man in a canoe iffinz ya'll polish'r up an finnish wit a gulp!

How Bouts Dat Darlin?

Spider said...

Yep, he's back!

I'm afraid i'm not out in the country like you guys, but i do have a great field of fire from my terrace. Let's get it on!