Subsistence hunters in Alaska usually spend this time of year preparing for the return of seals and migratory birds to the Bering Straits region. But this year many are preoccupied by the state-wide shortage of .22-caliber shells, one of the most popular and common types of ammunition in the world.
Along with low supplies of other ammunition, such as 300-, .303- and .243-caliber shells,"We've also been having a hard time getting some .22 shells," Mary Ungut, manager of the Native Store in Gambell, on St. Lawrence Island, recently told KNOM radio. "It seems that the price is increasing, too."
Gun and ammunition sales have been rising since 2008, largely amid concerns over gun control efforts by the Obama administration. They spiked again in late 2012 and early last year after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
"There are a lot of wild stories," said Mike Bazinet, public affairs director with the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun industry's trade association, in an interview with the Alaska Dispatch news site. "One story we've heard anecdotally is that the government is buying up all the ammo. That is not true. Government purchases have gone down over last three years."
American Rifleman, one of the National Rifle Association's official journals, in December published a detailed article on some of the factors behind the ammunition shortage. One major issue was, of course, the spike in demand.
"Can you imagine what would happen if the demand for your other favorite products doubled in five years?" it asked. "Wouldn't they likely be more expensive and harder to find?"
But the article also pointed to more mundane economic reasons behind the diminished ammunition stockpiles. Those include the rising cost of raw materials in an increasingly globalized and competitive marketplace; concerns about possible over-investment during a market bubble; the costs and delays of upgrading manufacturing machinery; and the need to hire more employees to keep up with growing demand.
