Thread: All out of ammo: US cops can’t stay stocked up as gun and bullet sales soar

All out of ammo: US cops can’t stay stocked up as gun and bullet sales soar

The agency said there was already a shortage of bullets back in August, which made the threat of “substantial safety issues for the government” a very real one, should law enforcement officials not be adequately armed. The spikes in gun control, which came in waves after Obama’s reelection and the Sandy Hook massacre, drastically worsened the shortage.

Published: 09 January, 2013, 23:57
rt.com


AFP Photo / Spencer Platt

A spike in gun and ammunition sales has caused a nationwide shortage that has delayed police training exercises and is putting a substantial amount of weaponry in civilian hands.

Police in Atlanta, Georgia have been forced to delay training exercises due to a shortage of ammunition. The police department has put orders for more bullets on back-order, while officers are being deprived of the training that makes them capable of handling weapons.

“When you can’t get ammunition, it is very concerning,” Sandy Springs Police Chief Terry Sult tells WSBTV. “It affects our ability to be prepared. It affects the potential safety of the officers, because they’re not as proficient as they should be.”

The Sandy Springs Police Department is facing a shortage of tens of thousands of bullets and is scrambling to restock. The neighboring counties are facing an equally dire situation, with both practice ammunition and duty ammunition in short supply. Douglas County Chief Deputy Stan Copeland predicts it could be 6-8 months before the back-orders come in.

“We’re going to get very concerned at the six-month level if that’s all we have in stock, because then we have to start planning and rationing,” Sult says.

Local ammunition suppliers are attributing the shortage to the spike in gun and ammunition purchases by civilians after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting sparked debate on tighter gun control regulations.

FBI background checks for weapons hit a record 2.8 million in December, with most of those occurring after the Dec. 14 massacre. Last month also saw a drastic increase in gun sales, with every US state seeing a rise from the previous month. Ammunition sales were equally steep, with Brownells, the largest supplier of firearm accessories in the world, reporting that it has blown through several years’ worth of ammunition in just a matter of hours. The company apologized for its inability to meet consumer demands.

“There’s been a whole lot of hysteria raised by the [National Rifle Association] about the need to stockpile guns because Obama’s going to take your guns away,” Caroline Brewer, a spokeswoman for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, tells ABC News. “It may mean more gun owners are buying more guns.”

Factories are now struggling to produce enough ammunition to keep up with demand, prompting police departments to share with neighboring counties in order to keep running. The federal government may have experienced a similar shortage if it didn’t prepare ahead of time: the Department of Homeland Security recently ordered 200,000 rounds of bullets at the cost of $45,000 dollars. The ammo will be delivered to a training site in South California.

The agency said there was already a shortage of bullets back in August, which made the threat of “substantial safety issues for the government” a very real one, should law enforcement officials not be adequately armed. The spikes in gun control, which came in waves after Obama’s reelection and the Sandy Hook massacre, drastically worsened the shortage.

Rather than purchasing ammo from their usual factory suppliers, police are now being forced to search local shops for the supplies they so desperately need.

“We’re having law enforcement agencies that are coming in and buying ammunition off the shelf, because, you know, they need it,” says Jay Wallace, owner of the Georgia-based Smyrna Police Distributors.

All out of ammo: US cops can

seems to me they need to talk to DHS; almost 1.7 BILLION rounds bought within the last year

Ammo is hard to get now for anyone

Alabama leads the way in nationwide run on guns


By Challen Stephens | cstephens@al.com
January 11, 2013


A Huntsville customer holds up a standard AR-15 modern sporting rifle at Larry's Pistol & Pawn, where lines were long in December. (Challen Stephens / cstephens@al.com)

Alabama appears to have led the national run on guns last month.
It's not that Alabamians purchased the most. But Alabama saw the nation's largest spike in applications for firearm background checks, a sudden rise of 145 percent, between the months of October and December.

Federal background checks spiked in every single state following the presidential election and the shooting in Newtown, according to FBI data on background checks. Background checks normally rise before Christmas. But as 2012 ended with debate over gun control, the rise went well beyond the normal uptickfor holiday shopping.

And the increased interest wasn't limited to the South.

Tennessee saw background checks rise 130 percent between October and December, the second largest spike. But an al.com analysis of federal background checks shows Tennessee was followed in order by Delaware, Mississippi, Oregon and Virginia. In all, 16 states filed for more than twice as many firearm background checks in December as in October. That includes Ohio, Rhode Island and Nevada.

The data comes from the FBI, and is not a perfect match with sales, as states have different requirements for checks and some customers are denied. But the rising interest in gun ownership is clear.

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, December 2012 marked the highest number of background checks ever. The NSSF, based in Newtown, Conn., is the firearm trade association.

Nationally, Kentucky saw the smallest spike at the end of 2012, with background checks up just 17 percent from October to December. But that's because, according to the NSSF, Kentucky already conducts many more checks than other states, routinely inquiring about people who hold active concealed carry permits.

For perspective, Kentucky filled out 6 background check applications for every 10 citizens. No other state sees a fraction as much activity per capita.
source:

NICS Firearm Background Checks, 2012In terms of applications per capita, Alabama ranked 10th, with roughly nine background checks for every 100 citizens in 2012. However, Alabama jumped to 7th in background checks per capita during a busy December.

NSSF, which adjusts for those extra checks by Kentucky and a couple other states, found a small rise already starting nationwide in January of 2012 over January of 2011. Checks in June were up 25 percent over June of 2011. But the spike grows largest by year's end, as the NSSF's adjusted numbers show the FBI handled about 1.4 million checks in December of 2011 compared to more than 2.2 million in December of 2012. That's a year-over-year jump of 59 percent.

NSSF reports that December 2012 marked the 31st consecutive month that checks rose over the same month in the previous year.

According to the FBI, the National Instant Criminal Background System, or NICS, was launched in 1998. Federal Firearms Licensees can use the system to determine who is eligible to buy a firearm, checking for categories such as illegal aliens, fugitives, convicts, those who have been committed, individuals currently under restraining orders and military personnel who were dishonorably discharged.

"Before ringing up the sale, cashiers call in a check to the FBI or to other designated agencies to ensure that each customer does not have a criminal record or isn't otherwise ineligible to make a purchase. More than 100 million such checks have been made in the last decade, leading to more than 700,000 denials," reads the FBI information on the NICS web page.

However, recent political debate has turned to flaws in the system. For instance, states are not legally required to supply the records necessary to maintain a meaningful federal database. And unlicensed gun sellers can get around the system.

Alabama leads the way in nationwide run on guns | al.com

Police in Atlanta, Georgia have been forced to delay training exercises due to a shortage of ammunition. The police department has put orders for more bullets on back-order, while officers are being deprived of the training that makes them capable of handling weapons.

No kidding! What a load of horse crap. The Obama administration just put a run on ammo for the last two years buying millions upon millions of rounds for DHS and many other agencies!

They bought millions of hollow point rounds which are used to kill people, not for training yet they claimed all that ammo is for training. But now Atlanta PD has no training rounds?

It all smells rotten! rotten! rotten!

W

Nationwide ammo shortage so severe that even cops can’t buy bullets; ammo rationing imminent

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
January 17th, 2013
Reader Views: 2,035
Comments (6)

(NaturalNews) One of the great myths of modern society is that the police are heavily armed and have both ammo and personnel in huge numbers. In reality, it’s quite the opposite: police and sheriffs are dangerously under-staffed all across the country in nearly every city and town. Furthermore, severe budget cuts have left law enforcement with dwindling ammunition supplies. In some departments, it’s so bad that nearly the only ammo available is what officers are carrying on their duty belts.

And now it has just gotten far worse.

Thanks to outrageous Sandy Hook fear mongering by the mainstream media and political operatives like Feinstein, Obama, Cuomo and others, the American people have been rushing out to buy up every bullet, every rifle, every handgun and very nearly every gun-related product in the country. This is all because people like Biden, Obama and Feinstein are openly declaring war on the Second Amendment and threatening to outlaw or restrict firearms, magazines and ammunition.

“Channel 2 Action News has learned local police departments cannot get their hands on the ammunition they need,” reports WSBTV in Atlanta.

WSBTV continues:

“There’s been more demand for ammunition than there’s ever been,” reports Jay Wallace, owner of Smyrna Police Distributors in Cobb County. Wallace is now worried some departments could have to wait up to a year for factories to ship certain kinds of rounds in bulk. Leaders with most [police] departments … said they’re prepared to handle short shortages, but not long-term. “We’re going be starting to get very concerned at the six-month level if that’s all we have in stock, because then we have to start planning and rationing.Rationing?

Yep. It’s here already, and the global debt collapse hasn’t even begun yet!

Ammunition inventory status

The mass rush by citizens to purchase ammunition ahead of an Obama / Biden unconstitutional (and unlawful) executive order banning such sales has resulted in the near-depletion of available ammunition as follows:
• Rifle rounds are completely gone everywhere.

• Shotgun shells are somewhat more available but still limited.

• Handgun rounds are limited and becoming difficult to find.

• 22LR rounds are completely gone. Lesser-known varmint rounds such as .17 HMR are still available.

The backlog of ammunition demand now exceeds one year. The backlog demand for rifle magazines now exceeds one million units. The demand for rifles themselves has reached record levels, with a one-year backlog on production just to meet present-day demand.

Here are some of the messages you’ll see across the internet right now at online retailers’ websites:

Cheaper Than Dirt:
Consumer reaction to the political rhetoric after the shooting in CT caused a rush of online orders at Cheaper Than Dirt! which led to the largest backlog in the company’s history. Ammunition and shooting accessories orders more than tripled, resulting in week-long shipping delays. The past three weeks have been spent catching up on the tremendous backlog of orders, training additional staff and increasing inventory back to acceptable levels. …firearms that are in high demand are not currently available from manufacturers due to the lack of inventory. This includes most modern sporting rifles.

Ammo To Go
EXPECT DELAYS: Due to high order volume, we are experiencing a shipping delay of 22-24 business days…

Midway USA
ALL AR-15 magazines currently showing “out of stock, NO backorder.”

Brownells
Due to extreme order volumes, shipments may be delayed. We will continue to make every effort to get orders out the door as quickly as possible.
Why this matters: Social unrest

Here’s why all this matters. In a time of social unrest, cops are your best friends. Without cops on the streets, every major U.S. city would devolve into a gang-infested crap-hole within 72 hours or less. Cops are the men and women in blue who prevent the more malicious members of the human race from expressing the kind of evil sons of bitches they really are deep inside.

If you think humanity is “inherently GOOD,” you’ve never been a cop! Ask any cop and they’ll tell you the far less fashionable truth: People are inherently EVIL, selfish, deceptive and dangerous. That’s why we need cops in the first place, isn’t it? To keep some criminal-minded dirtbag from breaking into your home, stealing your jewelry and raping your dog. (Or whatever it is they do.)

Cops get a bad rap in peace time, of course, but in a collapse scenario — or something worse — you’ll be begging for 911 to function so you can dial a phone and have (relatively) friendly men with guns arrive at your doorstep.

Society needs cops to prevent criminals from running rampant across neighborhoods and pillaging to their heart’s delight. Or, better yet, society needs every household to own a rifle, a shotgun and a handgun for their own defense, but unfortunately that’s not yet the case in America. (Although it nearly is in Switzerland.)

So what happens when cops run out of bullets?

It’s not good. Not unless you’re a gang member just waiting to commit mayhem all over town.

If gang bangers ever figure out that the cops are out of bullets, it will be all-out war in many U.S. cities, including Miami, LA, Detroit, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and NYC. A disarmed police force is no police force at all, since it’s only really the threat of high-velocity lead that actually stops bad people from doing bad things. (Criminals don’t care if you ask nice. They are only motivated by their own survival.)

It also means that the feds will have a strong ammunition advantage over local cops and sheriffs, since the U.S. federal government has been stockpiling 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition domestically, right here in the United States.

Why does this matter? Here’s why:

Will states resist a federal gun grab?

Think about where all this is headed, folks: Wyoming lawmakers have already announced their “Firearms Protection Act” which would make it a felony crime for feds to restrict or confiscate guns from the citizens of Wyoming. It reads as follows:

Any official, agent or employee of the United States government who enforces or attempts to enforce any act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation of the United States government upon a personal firearm, a firearm accessory or ammunition that is owned or manufactured… in Wyoming… shall be guilty of a FELONY and, upon conviction, shall be subject to imprisonment for not less than one year…

Yeah, I didn’t make that up. Wyoming folks are serious about their rifles and their ammo… as are folks in Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Kentucky, Maine and practically every rural area across the country. It’s very likely that Texas, Arizona and other states may follow Wyoming’s example and seek to criminalize federal gun grabbers.

If Obama’s gun control schemes turn out to be foolishly aggressive, this could set off a state’s rights showdown between the feds and local law enforcement. But if the feds have all the ammo, where will state peace officers find ammunition to defend the people of their state?

The answer is YOU. It will ultimately be YOUR ammo that will be needed to defend states against an anti-America, anti-Constitution federal tyranny that attempts to invade and overrun states. The People, of course, have always been the common defense against tyranny. In the Constitution, this is referred to as the militia.

Hopefully it won’t get that bad and cooler heads will prevail, but given where things appear to be headed, all this could become very relevant more quickly than you think. It’s a good thing the citizens of America purchase over 1 billion rounds of ammo in the last month, as they may very well become the source of ammo for a common defense against domestic enemies of America.

Rifle inventory update

Here’s the latest info in terms of rifle manufactures:

Noveske Rifleworks = SOLD OUT

POF-USA = SOLD OUT

Rock River Arms = SOLD OUT

Bushmaster = SOLD OUT

Barrett = SOLD OUT

DPMS = SOLD OUT

… and on and on.

Buds Gun Shop is in a state of such total disarray that they actually cashed my check for a firearm they allowed me to “purchase” on their website, then they called me back days later and said they actually DIDN’T have the firearm after all because they had made a “mistake,” and they had to issue me a refund check. This managed to tie up my funds for a couple of weeks during which all the other available rifles disappeared off store shelves. (Thanks a lot, Buds, for making me miss out on probably the last rifle purchase I’ll be able to make until 2014…)

Seeing the opportunity to profit from the supply and demand, Buds is now running real-time auctions on firearms, live on their website. A Bushmaster 223 rifle that used to sell for $800 or so is now fetching $2,900 in the auction. Yep, your existing inventory of rifles just TRIPLED in value. Hmmm… now I think I know where my missing rifle actually went…

On a personal note, I obviously don’t recommend you try to buy anything from Buds until all this is over, as you never really know if they’re going to deliver the rifle you’ve already paid for. (What a crap way to conduct business, for the record. When we sell goods at the Natural News Store, we always have them in stock and ready to ship. Is that so difficult?)

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple

Contributed by Mike Adams of NaturalNews.

Nationwide ammo shortage so severe that even cops can't buy bullets; ammo rationing imminent