They also work tirelessly to create a need for a product in a market which is saturated. Most sportsmen, people who use firearms in their job, and citizens concerned with personal protection already have all the guns they need. But if you’re gearing up for Red Dawn or Falling Skies, you can never have too much.

They’re really not all that different than any other industry association.

Its either that, or Obama is buying up all the ammo and warehousing it in Beirut.

Demand should have waned after the assault weapons ban failed. I agree the demand is probably coming from “speculators”(article below) taking advantage of the price increase.

I would guess the retail market is just a blip in their overall production. My Secret Service roommate must have gone through more ammunition during his monthly qualifying than 10,000 civilians put together. He had to qualify with two handguns, a shotgun and an Uzi.

Self-defense weenies need a few rounds on hand, and a box or two when they practice at the range. This is my category, I buy a hundred rounds (a couple of boxes)or so per piece every year, and keep a hundred or so in reserve.

Hunters probably need the same amount, depending on the kind of game they go after.

The guys who are expecting a foreign invasion or a Communist coup d’etat can never have enough. This is who the NRA is now marketing to. The other shooters pretty much have all they need, both guns and ammo. That market is saturated. The minutemen/militia/patriot guys, and the criminals never feel they are sufficiently armed.

Check out the gun porn at your local supermarket magazine stand. This isn’t Field and Stream stuff any more, this is an arms race. And like all arms races, they are very profitable for arms merchants. These are the same guys who used to sell repeating rifles to the Sioux. The combination of fear, ideology and profit is deadly.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22865308/ammunition-hampers-firefighters-at-monument-blaze

http://www.topix.com/forum/denver/T1J10VP9JO2DD3KUF

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/06/08/erie-garage-fire-causes-ammunition-to-explode/

How many rounds does a person think they need to have? It’s not as if they are going to last long in any confrontation with the government, and any other confrontations are over fast. Police are in the business, and how often does a cop use an entire clip? How many cops have ever shot an entire clip in the line of duty? I’d guess not many, and most of those that have were engaged in a shooting orgy against a minor target.

It doesn’t make sense.

That’s a great quote with a lot of insight behind it, even if it was used satirically or humorously.

I usually keep between 100 and 200 rounds of pistol ammo for my two 45s, so when I go shooting I don’t need to buy any, and will always have enough left over for home defense until I get around to buying more. I figure if I ever actually use it for that purpose, its unlikely I’ll ever need more than a dozen or so rounds, win or lose.

I usually keep about twice as much of the 22 mag around, because I typically go through a lot more of that at the range.

But this must be a real inconvenience for sportsmen, particularly competition shooters, although I guess a lot of those guys reload their own ammo. They go through a lot of it, and even during normal times, it is a very expensive hobby.