After months of heavy gun buying, gun dealers across Florida are experiencing bullet shortages, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Some say it began with Barack Obama’s election. Others say it’s about the economic downturn or fear of crime. Whatever the reasons, ammunition has been selling like plywood and bottled water in the days before a hurricane. “The survivalist in all of us comes out,” said John Ritz of East Orange Shooting Sports in Winter Park. “It’s more about protecting what you have.”
Demand for bullets is so strong that suppliers are restricting deliveries. “Where we used to get 20 to 30 cases [in a shipment], we may get two to three cases now,” said Vic Grechniw of Florida Ammo Traders in Tampa. “The supply just isn’t there. [] Everybody is pretty much rushing out to get their hands on whatever they can.” Most in demand is handgun ammunition, including 9 mm and .45-caliber for semiautomatic pistols and .38-caliber for revolvers. Clerks at local Walmart stores say those sizes, along with .22-caliber, are on back order at the chain’s warehouses. U.S. gun owners buy about 7 billion rounds of ammunition yearly, according to the National Rifle Association. It has been warning its several million members that Obama favors raising taxes on bullets to make them prohibitively expensive.