Consider only one aspect of ammunition shortage, the high demand among the citizens. In an ideal world Manufacturers deal with distributors who in turn deal with retailers. But there seems to be a disconnect at the distributor level since the retail level in my part of central Oregon has seen very little handgun ammunition. Lots of shotgun and quite a bit of rifle ammo (.17 and .22 LR excepted), but not much in the .40 S&W, 9 mm, .45 ACP, .357, and .380 ACP handgun calibers. The only explanation that seems to make sense is that moneyed sources have inserted themselves at the distributor’s door and are paying a premium to buy up all they can for later resale on the back-door/gun-show market. I have heard stories about early entrants to gun shows buying up all the handgun ammo available thus starving out the ordinary customer. But gun shows are not the major source of ammo. That source is (or should be) the normal retailer. But nothing much has shown up at our retail level and the little that does appear is quickly bought up even though retailers (those with principles anyway) limit sales to 2 boxes per person/per caliber/per day. My personal store in Redmond Oregon currently has a fairly good supply of 9 mm and some .38 special but not much else in handgun calibers. And no one in my area has seen .380 ACP’s for a long time. As for those saying this is a “destructive” caliber, they don’t know much about ammunition. The .380 ACP is one of the smallest self protect calibers you can use, apart from .25 and .32′s. It is popular because it fits the pocket gun category occupied by the .380 Bersa, Sig P232 and Walther PPK family of weapons. But the 9 mm is much superior to the .380 ACP because it has more powder behind it and is available in bullets up to 147 gr while the .380 ACP tops out at about 105 gr. Certainly the demand by police departments would not account for the .380 ACP shortage. I personally believe that scalpers are the reason for much of the shortage at the civilian level. And this will not likely change until the black market is truly glutted and there is no more profit to be had. Then the distributor/retailer connection will be restored and citizens will again be able to fill their needs.
