Why is there a gun and ammo panic now?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Trey Veston said:
FYI. One administration knew the supply was depleted and ignored suggestions to rebuild it...

https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com...ts-to-replenish-n95-respirator-masks-in-2009/
Click to expand...

Phaedrus/69 said:
I guess the guy after him didn't bother, either, since that was 11 years ago and we're still out.
Click to expand...

Trey Veston said:
Oh, I forgot that everything is Trump's fault, comrade.
Click to expand...

A little cognitive dissent there, comrade?;) Let me follow your 'logic' there: The President should have bought masks 11 years ago but didn't (for reasons not stated). This was presumably because he did a bad job. Fast forward to 2016 and we're still short of masks. Trump should have fixed the problem but also didn't buy any masks and...still the last guy's fault? It was a good idea in 2011 was no longer a good idea in 2017/18/19/20? It seems to me like they both dropped the ball but then I guess that doesn't work in your preferred narrative.
 
I've got plenty of gloves and masks.

If these big shot hospitals have run out, then maybe they aren't so smart after all. Ya'll use these items every day. If you need management help, make me an offer. Lol.

Only thing I'm out of, is ground meat. I never freeze it.
 
Deadly 270 said:
I have a pet peeve and it is those who own firearms but do nothing to protect their right to do so. Granted the right to keep and bear arms should not need defending however the reality is that it does.
With gun ownership ranging from 80 million to 120 million the vast majority of them are leeches relying on the rest of us to protect their rights. I personally give around 500 dollars anually to various gun rights organizations and it pisses me off that I have all those dead beats attached to my back.
Click to expand...

That might be true but it makes me wonder- what have you done to protect the rest of the Bill of Rights? Just owning a gun doesn't automatically protect all the other rights, and nearly every civil right Americans have historically enjoyed is under assault. I'm not calling you out, just wondering what other groups you're a member of besides the NRA? Or are you just a free-rider on the backs of all those that fight for the rest of our rights?

At to the OP, the current ammo panic isn't rational by definition; panic is fear not governed by reason. Fear can be healthy but panic never is. Largely people are panic buying ammo for the same reasons they're panic buying TP- it's a coping mechanism, a means of trying to assert some control over a situation that's out of their control. They can't make CoV-2 go away but they can make sure they have TP/bottled-water/9mm ammo, etc.

The time to buy an umbrella is before the rain starts. Our supply chain from grocery stores to big box stores is predicated on JIT delivery and not holding inventory. Normally that works very well, probably in 99% of times. That can create complacency in folks. Many if not most people especially in urban areas tend to handle their home inventory in the way, JIT purchasing. That works okay too until a hurricane comes along, or job loss, or pandemic. There's not good reason to think the supply to grocery stores will be interrupted but there's chaos right now. Folks don't trust the government to tell them the truth about the virus nor can the gov get their story straight. In the absence of any clear guidance people let their imaginations run away with them.

Probably panic buying of ammo is rooted in the FUD whizzing around the internet and media now. Many PDs are publicly saying they won't respond to property crimes now so people are even more fearful. Ammo manufacturers and gun makers aren't going to product 3X more than they normally sell, they'd go bankrupt. Presumably they keep pretty good figures on what they sell in a given time span so that's probably what they build, with a bit of leeway. If suddenly sales spike there likely isn't product out there.
 
I think this event has caused a few people to realize that the world is not all unicorns farting rainbows. That bad stuff happens at a fairly regular rate, and the low rate at which it's happened in the US in the last century is an anomaly both historically and geographically.

Some of those people were smart enough to then buy a gun, but the pickings are a bit slim at the moment. I didn't have any trouble ordering .416 Rigby brass though - heck, it was on sale :D
 
Last edited:
Texas10mm said:
Many grocery stores receive multiple trucks a day. Some things are stocked by outside vendors, like bread, soda, beer, and such.

I guess it depends on the size of the store. A small store might get two trucks a week. A store like a Super HEB gets trucks every day.
Click to expand...
That is true, but milk, bread, dairy all come in separately.

Dry grocery deliveries, meaning anything not frozen, fresh, or refrigerated, do not come in every day. At least not at the super market chain where I work.
 
loneviking said:
I know that, and they are often still empty. It’s not the delivery cycle, it’s the trucks not coming in.

And now I see where , in addition to Scheels and Sportsman’s Warehouse, the local Cabela’s is now closed. There seems to be something beyond a quarantine going on here.
Click to expand...

Trucks are coming in but the warehouses are struggling to fill orders since every store is blown out. An order for 5000 cases will get knocked down to 1400 since there's not enough product to go around.

And that's with warehouses (at least at the super market chain I work for) having lines of trucks delivering product 24/7
 
Texas10mm said:
My thoughts are that almost all the "panic buying" in firearms is due to those people who always thought they didn't need a gun. Then things changed and now they think they do. Many of them will never load or fire the gun they bought in the panic.

The ammo situation is a bit different. Part of it is the group described above. But most of it is gun people who haven't learned from the past 3-4 shortages. Some of those "gun people" MIGHT shoot 200 rounds a year but they felt the sudden need to buy 1000 rounds of ammo.

.
Click to expand...

agreed
 
For some of us in the rural "boondocks", keeping supplies on hand is pretty much the norm. There is a small affiliate grocery store in the small town 5 miles from me. Today it had plenty of meats and even some disinfectant wipes. What they didn't have was those packs of ramen noodle soup. It seems that the county jail came and bought them out for it's commissary.. Go figure...? o_O
Keeping it gun related, a lady that I talked to admitted that she and her husband only have a 22 on hand and wondered if they should borrow something from a friend?
 
BlueHeelerFl said:
Trucks are coming in but the warehouses are struggling to fill orders since every store is blown out. An order for 5000 cases will get knocked down to 1400 since there's not enough product to go around.

And that's with warehouses (at least at the super market chain I work for) having lines of trucks delivering product 24/7
Click to expand...

Apologies in advance for off-topic discussion...

The other thing to keep in mind is that historically you could rely on a certain amount of food prepared at home, and a certain amount consumed out of the home (gas stations, restaurant, etc). Ratios vary by region, but the distribution is built around relatively predictable consumption patterns.

Now overnight we’ve dramatically shifted those ratios towards home-prepared food. We really shouldn’t have expected our food distribution network to be prepared for that shift, and for the most part the ones around here are doing a decent job playing catch-up.
 
If I get a check from this I will go out and buy a gun. I do not need this stimulus money. I really don`t care if I get any of it.
I guess I could send it back.
 
DairyVet said:
Now overnight we’ve dramatically shifted those ratios towards home-prepared food. We really shouldn’t have expected our food distribution network to be prepared for that shift, and for the most part the ones around here are doing a decent job playing catch-up.
Click to expand...

Makes total sense. My girlfriend and I used to eat out at least twice a week or more and now it's cooking at home. I went and refilled my gas grille propane tank in anticipation of using it much more. The last tank was in use for nearly two years and still had about a quarter left, so I should be fine for at least a year.

I've heard of some restaurants selling the bulk food orders they are getting in from distributors to the public.

But to the topic on hand, a month ago, I thought having a big stockpile of food was silly. A month's worth seemed prudent no matter the circumstances. I also thought the virus was no big deal and the media would forget about it after a month and things would go back to normal. I also thought the stockpiling of weapons and ammo was silly and not needed. In fact, I still do. But I did just order an AR-10 upper out of fear that I wouldn't be able to complete my build for 6 months to a year due to the reaction I was seeing from the public.

The TP, hand sanitizer, ammo and weapons situation degraded so quickly that within days, things were wiped out.

In this current climate, who are we to say that having weapons and ammo is silly and paranoia? Things could go South very quickly in a lot of areas.
 
Trey Veston said:
Makes total sense. My girlfriend and I used to eat out at least twice a week or more and now it's cooking at home. I went and refilled my gas grille propane tank in anticipation of using it much more. The last tank was in use for nearly two years and still had about a quarter left, so I should be fine for at least a year..
Click to expand...
I go through about 6 tanks a year with my Weber grille. We go to restaurants about once a month (maybe).
 
kidneyboy said:
I go through about 6 tanks a year with my Weber grille. We go to restaurants about once a month (maybe).
Click to expand...
I've heard people talk about 'grilling season'. I have no idea what that is.

I grill year 'round. It's always grilling season. We go out to eat maybe 4 times a year

When I was a boy, I lived on a state that got much snow. I remember Dad brushing a foot of snow off the charcoal grill, and firing it up.

Good times.
 
Llama Bob said:
I bought three 20rd boxes so there was probably plenty left for him :)
Click to expand...

I was telling my dad today that I was having trouble finding .308 components for my new AR-10 and he told me that his buddy's company has plenty. They specialize in cowboy action shooting and BPCR competition rifles and supplies. I hadn't even considered them for normal ammo. Checked them out and sure enough, lots of brass and even .308 bullets on clearance. Ordered 200 cases and 200 bullets for around $110 and was happy as a clam.
 
I'm pretty late to the discussion, but, after reading many of the comments, I see a pattern. It seems most of us agree that people are buying guns for the "just in case" that law enforcement isn't up to the task of protecting them (for whatever reason). Here is MY question: What good is it going to do someone to own a gun? My state, and I think every state in which I've ever lived, makes it a felony to use lethal force to protect property. So the neighbor stealing your stuff can't legally be stopped and, if you do, you get to go to prison.

Other than that, yeah it's obvious why people are buying guns. And food. (I got nothing for you on why they're buying tp.)
 
D.B. Cooper said:
I'm pretty late to the discussion, but, after reading many of the comments, I see a pattern. It seems most of us agree that people are buying guns for the "just in case" that law enforcement isn't up to the task of protecting them (for whatever reason). Here is MY question: What good is it going to do someone to own a gun? My state, and I think every state in which I've ever lived, makes it a felony to use lethal force to protect property. So the neighbor stealing your stuff can't legally be stopped and, if you do, you get to go to prison.

Other than that, yeah it's obvious why people are buying guns. And food. (I got nothing for you on why they're buying tp.)
Click to expand...


I've never understood why people question why folks by toilet paper......if you're alive you need toilet paper. Pretty simple. lol
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

WrongHanded
  • Locked
Firearms Neophytes Panic Buying
2 3 4
Replies
95
Views
4K
GEM
G
Hog huntin Harry
  • Locked
Ammo shortages
Replies
4
Views
573
Robert
Robert
gopguy
  • Locked
Shades of 1992, high prices, panic buying of guns...
Replies
17
Views
888
Regular Joe
R
M
  • Locked
Panic buying - good for guns?
Replies
20
Views
1K
ApacheCoTodd
ApacheCoTodd
M
  • Locked
The AMMO Panic and family
Replies
0
Views
439
MagnumDweeb
M
Back
Top