If you're not part of the solution ...

We're back where we were in 2008, when Barack Obama was first elected and we genuinely feared that he would enact draconian anti-firearms legislation.  This is the reason why we're having trouble finding ammunition, firearms and reloading components today ... as we did then..

I received an email lately from a local friend who had written to an ammunition supplier bemoaning the lack of availability.  The following is cut from the response which he received;  I have not edited the text at all:

Thank you for the question and do we understand it is difficult to obtain ammunition at the moment. 

Our company sells ammunition products to hundreds of distributors, retailers, and shooting ranges in the United States and these customers have placed giant orders with every manufacturer to try and keep product in their inventory.  We believe that the fear of the American people towards President Obama's administration in their attempt to destroy the 2nd Amendment Rights of Americans is driving sales of firearms and ammunition at such a high level that the manufacturers cannot keep up, even though most companies are operating 24 hours a day and 7 days per week.  Please trust us when we say all of the ammunition companies that we know of are working day and night to build as much ammunition as possible.  The best way to describe the situation is to understand that every single customer that we sell to has placed orders that combined would exceed 2-3 years of production.  This was similar to the sales trend in 2009 after President Obama was initially elected in 2008. Most people feared that the administration would come after gun regulation in his first term, but that didn't happen because the democrats feared that he might not get re-elected in 2012.  Now that he is in his 2nd term, the gun legislation is very heated and pressing forward at the Federal and State level, which is causing the increased demand at the consumer level. 

Here is a letter that was written in one of the industry publications on 2-12-13 by Alan Gottlieb, who is the founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation.  This will give you some perspective on the situation:

Editor's Note: Today's Op-Ed feature was written by Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation.

Following the hysteria generated by gun prohibitionists in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, a nationwide rush on gun stores began as citizens bought semiautomatic modern sporting rifles, handguns and ammunition, in effect "making a political statement" about proposals to ban such firearms. Making political statements is what the First Amendment is all about. The so-called "assault rifle" has become a symbol of freedom and the right of the people to speak out for the entire Bill of Rights. Banning such firearms, which are in common use today, can no longer be viewed exclusively as an infringement on the Second Amendment, but must also be considered an attack on the First Amendment. Many people now feel that owning a so-called "assault rifle" without fear of government confiscation defines what it means to be an American citizen. Their backlash against knee-jerk extremism is a natural reaction to overreaching government. What should one expect in response to this heightened rhetoric and legislative hysteria? Citizens in other countries react differently to government intrusion into their lives, but Americans are uniquely independent. Among firearms owners, talk of gun bans and attempts to limit one's ability to defend himself or herself against multiple attackers by limiting the number of rounds they can have in a pistol or rifle magazine turns gun owners into political activists. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) did not intend her gun ban proposal to cause skyrocketing sales of semiautomatic rifles and pistols, but that's what happened. She must live with the consequences of her shameless political exploitation of the Sandy Hook tragedy. President Barack Obama never envisioned the rush to purchase rifle and pistol magazines, but telling American citizens they shouldn't have something is like sending a signal they need to acquire those things immediately. Vice President Joe Biden never imagined his efforts would result in a tidal wave of new members and contributions to gun rights organizations, making the firearms community stronger and more united in opposition to any assault on the Second Amendment. 
Freedom of association is also protected by the First Amendment. Perhaps they should take a day off and visit the monuments at Lexington and Concord, and reflect on what prompted those colonists to stand their ground. It was the first time in American history that the government moved to seize arms and ammunition from its citizens, and it went rather badly for the British. Beneath the surface many Americans are convinced that we may be approaching a point when the true purpose of the Second Amendment is realized. Underscoring this is a new Pew Research Center poll that, for the first time, shows a majority (53 percent) of Americans believe the government is a threat to their rights and freedoms. Exacerbating the situation is a perceived indifference from the administration toward the rights of firearms owners who have committed no crime, but are being penalized for the acts of a few crazy people. 
It is time to lower the rhetoric and allow cooler heads to prevail. The demonization of millions of loyal, law-abiding Americans and the firearms they legally own must cease. If we are to have a rational dialogue about firearms and violent crime, we must recognize that the very people who could be most affected have a First Amendment right to be heard. Recall the words of Abraham Lincoln, who cautioned us more than 150 years ago that "A house divided against itself cannot stand." A half-century before him, Benjamin Franklin taught us that "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Their spirits are calling to us now. 

--Alan Gottlieb, Gottlieb is founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation.

We hope this helps paint a picture of the massive increased demand for guns and ammunition at the consumer level.  Everyone wants to get product before the administration passes new restrictive laws. We will continue to work extremely hard 24/7 to manufacture ammunition to meet the needs of our customers.  We will never sacrifice quality or safety to improve overall output, but we will try our best to increase shipments wherever possible.  Thank you once again for your email and we trust that our reply is sufficient.

Best Regards,

That's the end of the text which I received.  I don't have links to any of the comments I've just published, so I cannot confirm their authenticity.   I have no other information to provide at this time, and I will not publish the source of the above text.  As far as I am concerned, this is a "Guest Commentary".  Everything I publish here is copyright as of the date in which it is published (here; February 16, 2013).  This does not negate the copyrights of the original authors.

Removing my publisher hat, and donning again my blogger hat .... still copyright.  But I think that a lot of people are NOT looking at the way the current administration has succeeded beyond their wild dreams at undermining the confidence of the Public and the businesses of the Republic.  This has been accomplishing by our President's continuing reluctance (or inability) to reassure his constituents that America will no undermine the stability of the national business environment, and will not fall into the status of a Police State, where arbitrary edicts become a fact of life and The Rule Of Law has been more-or-less abrogated.

We cannot 'insure domestic tranquility' by arbitrary governmental edicts, nor by the intransigence of our leadership.  Is it any wonder that the market is in turmoil, and our citizens are increasingly looking to providing for their own 'common defense' rather than relying on our government?

This is the moment when our Constitution (and our Declaration of Independence) becomes our own best defense.

The Second Amendment was established for the times when we cannot reasonably expect our Federal government to protect and defend us.   Now, more than ever, we find ourselves ever more thankful that our Founding Fathers have acknowledged our private rights to look out for ourselves, when our government will not do so.