Where are all the rifles and ammo?

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Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby docwatson » Tue May 12, 2009 11:40 am

I wrote this blog entry this morning and I wanted to share this thought with you and get all your opinions…

Where have all the Rifle and Ammunition Gone?

Most of us take the offered answer that "It's the war" at face value to explain the absence of 9mm and .45 (military sidearms), 5.56 (M4's and M16's), 7.62 (M240's), and .50 Cal Ammunition.

The problem with that answer is that it presupposes that all of the ammunition that is currently being bought by the government is being used and replaced.

We're not in major combat operations - that is we're not in a classical combat operations fighting pitched battles with hordes of the enemy as we did in WWII or even the First Gulf War - it is combat and there is an expenditure of ammunition but we just can't be expending the millions of tons that would justify the absence of such ammo in the civilian market.

Okay but why can't I buy a military grade rifle, either?

This issue also goes to the production of military rifles as well - try buying a military rifle of choice and you'll find that they are months behind in stock and delivery with some manufacturers saying years.

Again, we're not in WWII and putting a rifle into the hands of millions of American soldiers every day and shipping them off to fight. The number of rifles produced far outstrips the number of American service men and women that not only on duty but that actually carry and use these rifles; even taking wear and tear into consideration, it doesn't make sense that there aren't any on the civilian market.

The right question should be "Are we using all that the USG is buying?"

I suspect the answer is 'no' and perhaps we should all look closer and call our respective representatives and ask them to look at exactly where our weapons and ammunition are actually going because the Tin Foil Hat Crew may have it right that we have a government that is subtly disarming the populace - through purchasing ammunition and weapons and exclusivity contracts via 'the needs of the government'.

We won Heller and had the Second Amendment affirmed but if we don't have the military grade weapons or, worse, the ammunition to use with what weapons we have right now and in our hands then we have no means to fight a Tyrant as our Founding Fathers intended.

Call your Congressional and Senate Rep today and contact the news services. Someone needs to find out before it's too late.
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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby Woodsman » Tue May 12, 2009 12:49 pm

Simple: Demand has caught up with supply. Go try and find some bulk .22 ammo or handgun ammo. Good luck. Smart buyers stocked up as much as they could before this period.
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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby docwatson » Tue May 12, 2009 1:28 pm

Woods,

Sadly, that's also been a punk-ass excuse from ammo manufacturers for over a year now. I seriously don't think it's quite that simple and, even if that were true, why aren't supplies being increased to meet demand? It also doesn't explain the dearth of military grade rifles for the last 24 months. Something seriously stinks here.

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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby Devlin » Tue May 12, 2009 1:48 pm

I do think things are starting to get better. I am starting to see more .223 in the shops around here. It is mostly PMC. The prices suck but it is there. I can walk into a shop this morning and pick up a Rock River if I wanted. Now Colt's and LMT's are not around. I even spotted cases of Wolf 7.62 for sale last week.
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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby ktrout » Wed May 13, 2009 12:06 am

I was able to pick up 1000 rounds of .22 last week. Howard Nemerov has a blog entry on this. Demand spiked and it's just not enough of a sure thing to build new production capacity. That's perfectly sound business to me. It's like gasoline was last year, except, fortunately, gas didn't become unobtanium.
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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby Woodsman » Wed May 13, 2009 12:38 am

docwatson wrote:Woods,

Sadly, that's also been a punk-ass excuse from ammo manufacturers for over a year now. I seriously don't think it's quite that simple and, even if that were true, why aren't supplies being increased to meet demand? It also doesn't explain the dearth of military grade rifles for the last 24 months. Something seriously stinks here.

-Doc-



I can understand your skepticism (seriously I can), but I believe that is what is going on. If you put yourselves in ammo mfgrs. shoes, you wouldn't want to invest (too much) into a new plant just to have to close it after the Obama-is-going-to-shut-us-off+the-giant-depression fears are over.

Let me tell you a little something....A guy who I have never met in my life just sent me double what I paid + shipping for about 1,000 rounds of the crappiest .22 ammo I ever bought (from Wally world) just so he could have something to shoot, because he couldn't find anything.

I was ecstatic to get rid of it. I hate crappy ammo that can't drive tacks!
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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby Penta » Wed May 20, 2009 3:01 pm

This should cheer you guys up:

Yet Another WTF? Moment

by Abby Zimet

Handing gun owners a victory that eluded them under Bush, Congress and President Obama are poised to approve a law allowing visitors to national parks to carry loaded and concealed weapons. The measure is expected to reassure those worried about running into former Guantanamo detainees who have escaped from their U.S. prison cells to visit wildlife refuges.
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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby docwatson » Wed May 20, 2009 4:53 pm

Umm, not really.... (mumbles something about 'rich, clueless Eurotrash')

The ability to carry a firearm is separate from actually being able to have a market where they are actually available. The irony is that I have a better chance of being able to get a firearm I want in Europe than I do here.
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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby Chimborazo » Wed May 20, 2009 5:43 pm

Penta wrote:This should cheer you guys up:

Yet Another WTF? Moment

by Abby Zimet

Handing gun owners a victory that eluded them under Bush, Congress and President Obama are poised to approve a law allowing visitors to national parks to carry loaded and concealed weapons. The measure is expected to reassure those worried about running into former Guantanamo detainees who have escaped from their U.S. prison cells to visit wildlife refuges.


Ugh. Actually, the Bush administration is the one who allowed it. And it's not exactly as Ms. Zimet puts it. All it does is allow carry in parks if your state allows it. In other words, it's aligning the federal park rules with state law. Pretty logical to me. I don't think it was until Obama was in office that the ruling was overturned and appealed. And why wouldn't you allow carry in national parks, where crime does happen and help is often far away?
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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby Stiv » Wed May 20, 2009 6:09 pm

Chimborazo wrote:
Penta wrote:This should cheer you guys up:

Yet Another WTF? Moment

by Abby Zimet

Handing gun owners a victory that eluded them under Bush, Congress and President Obama are poised to approve a law allowing visitors to national parks to carry loaded and concealed weapons. The measure is expected to reassure those worried about running into former Guantanamo detainees who have escaped from their U.S. prison cells to visit wildlife refuges.


Ugh. Actually, the Bush administration is the one who allowed it. And it's not exactly as Ms. Zimet puts it. All it does is allow carry in parks if your state allows it. In other words, it's aligning the federal park rules with state law. Pretty logical to me. I don't think it was until Obama was in office that the ruling was overturned and appealed. And why wouldn't you allow carry in national parks, where crime does happen and help is often far away?


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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby Hitoru » Wed May 27, 2009 5:23 am

docwatson wrote:Umm, not really.... (mumbles something about 'rich, clueless Eurotrash')

The ability to carry a firearm is separate from actually being able to have a market where they are actually available. The irony is that I have a better chance of being able to get a firearm I want in Europe than I do here.


Pure hyperbole, unless you are a felon, even then.
What do you want that you can get in Europe that you can't get in most states ?
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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby ktrout » Wed May 27, 2009 6:14 am

19 D 20 wrote:
docwatson wrote:Umm, not really.... (mumbles something about 'rich, clueless Eurotrash')

The ability to carry a firearm is separate from actually being able to have a market where they are actually available. The irony is that I have a better chance of being able to get a firearm I want in Europe than I do here.


Pure hyperbole, unless you are a felon, even then.
What do you want that you can get in Europe that you can't get in most states ?

I think he meant California, New York, Washington DC and a few other states on the eastern seaboard.
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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby Chimborazo » Wed May 27, 2009 1:38 pm

19 D 20 wrote:
docwatson wrote:Umm, not really.... (mumbles something about 'rich, clueless Eurotrash')

The ability to carry a firearm is separate from actually being able to have a market where they are actually available. The irony is that I have a better chance of being able to get a firearm I want in Europe than I do here.


Pure hyperbole, unless you are a felon, even then.
What do you want that you can get in Europe that you can't get in most states ?


Post '86 select fire.
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Re: Where are all the rifles and ammo?

Postby Hitoru » Wed May 27, 2009 7:10 pm

That's why I said in most states.

So he can go to Europe and legally buy a select fire weapon ?
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Postby el3so » Wed May 27, 2009 8:30 pm

Finland isn't Europe.
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