And that makes sense.
The "new normal" for many products has an upward trend (20 years ago the AVERAGE price of a new car was 15,000, now there are only 8 models with an MSRP under $15,000)
Expecting ammo and gun prices in 2013 to be at 2003 levels wouldn't be reasonable with or without a panic.
But, the panic shot prices up BEYOND the normal increase you would see. So when prices come DOWN from the panic, they are going to come back to a price that is higher than where they were before panic.
So a $20 item went to $30 during the panic and will drop to $22 when normalizing. Without the panic, the same item would still have increased from $20 to $22, but it would have been a gradual increase over time along with other commercial products increased prices.