There is no justification in paying a higher price, other than stupidity.
I'm not an economics major, but here is my take..
1. When people felt there was going to be civil unrest and a major gun grab, they cleaned the stores out of ammo; 22 is cheap so it was cleaned out en masse.
2. The shortage thus began when manufacturing levels could not keep up with the almost instant large demand.
3. When demand ramped up, so did production.
4. However once the dust settled, it's not a shortage issue, it's an availability issue.
There is no true "Shortage" of 22, in fact factories in the US churn out millions of rounds PER DAY.
The US government has pretty much stopped using 22lr years ago, except for maybe seldom usage in training here and there.
So government buy-ups of other calibers in the millions does NOT affect 22, despite what some people proclaim.
The issue with 22 are people buying it, and re-selling it.
In the wake of the 22 "Shortage" tons of online ammo stores opened up overnight and began selling ammo at stupid prices.
Since these stores have tons of money, they keep a tight grip on the availability of the ammo, no shortage at all.
Since 22 is still pretty scarce, people have no choice but to pay double, triple, even quadruple "normal prices" for bricks of 22.
Since people want it, and have no other choice, they pay the higher price.
So it all boils down to greed, people are buying the ammo with no other intention that to sell it at a higher price.
It's a classic case of highway robbery.
If people stopped, used common sense, and did not pay these inflated prices, I can guarantee you the price would fall back to "normal" levels.
Hell, I don't care if I age 30 years before I fire one round through my brand new Marlin 60.
The more support people give by being idiotic and paying inflated prices, the longer this "shortage" will last.
It would be no different if someone bought all the dollar bills in this country and started charging people two dollars for them.
If you look at it that way, the whole idea of paying twice to three times the actual value of a product is dumb.
It makes no sense to support your idea with the statement of "Welp, if this is the price I gotta pay, it's the price I gotta pay".
I cannot justify paying that much for 22, other than if I wanted to be foolish and bought it for 15 cents a round.
Once people put their thinking cap on and think "gee, maybe overpaying is stupid after all"...
..the prices would come down and you would start seeing it on the shelves for under $25 a brick.
Stores get ammo from distributors or manufactures who ship them "orders" of most likely 1000 bricks at a time.
If a "middle man" is ordering ammo and will pay higher, the distributor will sell to the higher price order than the stores.
That's why you don't see it on the shelf, and stores aren't getting any.
These online ammo stores that sprung up almost overnight, are paying more, shorting the stores out of supply, and charging more for the common person.
If Walmart, Gander Mountain, etc orders ammo at 3 cents a round, and "Joe Middleman" orders it at 7 cents a round, who do you think will get more shipments?
Quit overpaying for ammo, drive the middle men out of business, and you will see it cheap and plentiful.
Just my $0.02
. Ammo companies are cranking out more than ever, and to me a shortage is the product not being produced, which is not the case at all.
