In February alone, we sold over 2 million guns to Americans. We have sold over 165 million guns to America since we started tracking that stuff in November of 1998.
42% of the background checks for firearm purchase have been during the Obama administration.
I imagine all of these new gun owners decided to take the gun shop guy's advice and get a .22 as well, because "they're cheap and so you can afford to practice."
If EVERY MONTH even a quarter of a million people decide to buy 10,000 rounds of .22 to learn how to shoot from scratch and 1 and three quarters of a million said "oh crap, it's hard to find ammo... BUY EVERYTHING," I imagine it would look a lot like the ammo shelves look today.
Perception leads to reality, it's just like something a relative of mine did when a cotton shortage was announced from Texas. She went and bought 10 years worth of socks and blue jeans to "get hers before the price went up." I think it's the exact same thing, except it sure does deliver a wonderful political message since it is guns and not cotton.
Another example: A rumor starts that a Bank is insolvent. Result? Everyone goes to withdraw their money at the same time. Conclusion? Perception led to the Bank actually becoming insolvent.
It's the exact same thing, people and their stupid panic-buys are the issue... people who should have been stocked already decided to "prep" and didn't realize that fish hooks and lures and vaccuum sealed bags of grits can be sometimes somewhat more important than 100,000 rounds of .22 stashed under their bed. Newbie preppers give veteran preppers a bad name with their inexperienced panic buys... buying out of proportion to future need and completely ignoring vitally important categories.
It's really sad, I know a guy who "is fine on food, he's got a couple cases of MREs." The problem? He claims to have 100,000 rounds. I asked him if he had any medical supplies. I received a blank look and he changed the subject. Got a shortwave radio? Weather radio? What are you going to do for light, heat, and clean water if grid services are disrupted? He then insisted on talking about hunting. I'm fine with that.
