Nothing new. How can anyone not have known?
1. The NRA has been committing suicide, for some time. Folks who like owning guns are getting anxious, so are buying firearms and ammo.
2. An illness, out of China, has produced anxiety, causing a surge in purchases of firearms and ammo. Who needs zombies; we now have a real-life pandemic.
3. Social unrest, following an incident in a city starting with the letter “M,” in a state starting with the letter “M,” has caused plenty of anxiety/panic buying.
4. Firearms owners may well have a sad November. So, well, that anxiety thing, again, as happens in Novembers, at four-year intervals.
5. Just-in-time delivery has been THE business model, for a while. This means that the smallest increase in demand, creates bare shelves, locally, soon followed by bare shelves, at the distributor level.
I had chosen, months ago, to refresh 12 gauge, 9mm, and .32 ACP, in March/April 2020, coinciding with what I had hoped would be a decent tax return. Well, it was a good thing that I was well-stocked, because finding anything was difficult. (A dismal tax return situation was another matter. Retirement changes one’s budgetary situation.)
As for firearms, well, it is a good thing that I do not normally crave the latest/greatest/hawtest, anyway, and did my catching-up in past years, to the degree that I find myself largely stable, rather than “growing,” overall. In 2020, I have added a Remington Tac-14 Marine Magnum “Other Firearm,” after much consideration, as a niche weapon, and traded a G19 to acquire a second Seecamp LWS-32, as I am probably going to be phasing all or most “compact nines” out of my life. (The muzzle flip of the G19 is DRAMATICALLY worse, for my aging right thumb and wrist, than a G17, a G19x, or full-sized 1911, which have grip frames long enough to stabilize against the “heel bone” of my hand.)