Ammo makers at SHOT Show say demand still unprecedented

The good news for gun owners is that the ammunition industry is pumping out rounds just as fast as they can. The bad news is that it seems like the demand across the country is still outpacing the supply.

I spent several hours on Tuesday morning speaking with multiple individuals in the ammunition industry, none of whom wanted to go on the record but many of whom were willing to speak on background, and all of them shared different versions of the same story: they’re running at 100% capacity and looking to add more, but still haven’t caught up on the flood of orders that have been pouring in for almost two years now.

In fact, according to two industry officials from different companies who spoke to me on background, there’s been little to no let up in the demand for ammunition, even as firearm sales have declined slightly off their 2020 highs. That’s a double-edged sword for the industry itself, which has seen a surge in first-time gun buyers over the past two years. Turning those gun owners into folks who reliably head to the range on a regular basis is a multi-pronged effort, and if they find it too difficult to get ahold of the ammunition they need, there’s a portion of them that will eventually stop trying.

Even longtime gun owners have grown frustrated over the situation. A couple of weeks ago outdoor columnist Bill Ferris shared his thoughts on the state of the industry, and questioned whether its time for companies to make investments in expanding capacity.

I recently saw an interview with a manager for Federal, which now also manufactures Remington. He explained that his companies were working seven days a week and making ammunition 24 hours a day. They can’t make more without building new facilities, and if they guess wrong and shooters stop or slow down their buying, then they will have an over-capacity.

I’m not sure of the premise. Remington moved most of their gun making factory from New York to new factories in the south. Smith and Wesson announced they are leaving Massachusetts. Winchester had long ago moved from Connecticut and Ithaca moved out of New York 20 years ago.

All the gunmakers have moved to bigger facilities capable of manufacturing more guns in more “gun friendly” states from the traditional northeast. All except Connecticut Arms have moved, and for the most part, they only build traditional side-by-side or over-and-under shotguns.

Maybe it is time the ammunition makers built new facilities to accommodate all the new shooters who want to shoot their new guns before they lose to competition from the rest of the world.

Gunmakers have been moving out of blue states because of politics, not production capacity. And many large ammunition manufacturing facilities are already located in firearm friendly states like Arkansas and Idaho, so it’s not a matter of these companies needing to move before they can expand.

It really is more an issue of gauging whether today’s current demand is still artificially spiking because of the shortage caused by the Great Gun Run of 2020 (which is getting ready to enter it’s third year), or if the current demand represents a new normal. It’s also not a quick or easy thing to ramp up production lines in a factory setting, and like almost every other industry out there, many of these companies are dealing with a very tight labor market as well, which only increases the uncertainty surrounding a major expansion of production facilities.

So, as disappointing as the news is, I don’t expect any dramatic improvement in terms of ammo availability over the next few months. At best, I think we can hope for a gradual easing of the supply crunch, and it has gotten a little easier for me to find common calibers like 9mm and .223 in central Virginia over the past six months or so, but it’s still very much up in the air as to what I’m going to find on the shelves when I hit up my local gun stores, and I suspect that uncertainty is going to remain in place in the months ahead.

Another ‘Known Wolf’…cue the meme.

Texas Synagogue Hostage-Taker was Under Investigation by British MI5, Supported Pro-Palestinian and Jihadi Causes.

While the mainstream media portrays the Texas synagogue hostage-taker as a lone gunman with “mental health issues,” new reports reveal his deep ties to Islamist organizations and his leadership role in Muslim religious organizations.

On Saturday, 44-year-old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram was shot dead by a SWAT team after a 10-hour stand-off at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas. Akram, who had traveled from Lancashire (UK), took four Jewish worshipers hostage, including the congregation’s rabbi.

“According to official sources based in London, Malik Akram was a member of the pan-Islamic Tablighi Jamaat and had travelled abroad for works related to the organisation,” the leading Indian newspaper Hindustan Times reported. Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamist group with roots in India and Pakistan, is banned in some Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia.

“Akram also briefly served as the head of the Rondell street Islamic Centre in the London area, also known as Reza Masjid, where largely Muslims of Pakistani origin prayed,” the Indian newspaper revealed. “He is a known participant in demonstrations supporting pro-Palestine agenda and Guantanamo Bay prisoner rallies and approved of Jihad.”

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Today, January 19

1810 – The temperature at Portsmouth, New Hampshire drops from 54°F to minus 12°F in one day.

1817 – An army led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.

1861 – Georgia, Florida and Mississippi declare secession from the United States.

1883 – The first city electric lighting system, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

1915 – French engineer Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

1937 – Howard Hughes flying his H-1 Racer, sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.

1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.

1960 – Japan and the U.S. sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty

1977 – President Ford pardons Iva Toguri D’Aquino a.k.a. Tokyo Rose

1981 – United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.

1983 – Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.

1991 – Over Iraq;
USAF Cpts Rick Tuleni and Larry Pitts flying F-15s, each engage and shootdown Iraqi MiG-25 fighters.
USAF Cpts Craig Underhill and Cesar Rodriguez, flying F-15s, each engage Iraqi MiG-29 fighters, with Underhill shooting down his MiG and Rodriguez’ dogfight maneuvers resulting in the Iraqi pilot flying into the ground in an attempt to evade him
USAF Cpt David Prather and Lt David Sveden, flying F-15s, each engage and shootdown Iraqi Mirage F1 fighters
Iraq fires a second Scud missile into Israel, causing 15 injuries.

1996 – An engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia and tank barge North Cape  ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island causing a massive spill of over 800,000 gallons of heating oil.

Teen ISIS Fan Sentenced to Life in Prison for Stabbing 13-Year-Old Boy to Death in Sleepover Row About Islam

A Florida judge has sentenced to life a former teenage Isis fan who killed his friend at a sleepover in 2018.

Corey Johnson, now 21, was sentenced to life by circuit judge Cheryl Caracuzzo on Thursday after he was convicted of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder last November.

On 12 March 2018, Johnson was staying at his friend Kyle Bancroft’s home for a sleepover when he stabbed 13-year-old Jovanni Sierra.

He also stabbed Mr Bancroft’s brother Dane and his mother Elaine Simon, who was also at the home then.

Ms Simon and Mr Bancroft sustained serious injuries but survived the attack.

While Johnson’s counsel wanted him to spend 40 years in prison, the court sentenced him to life.

“I don’t think rehabilitation is likely,” Ms Caracuzzo was quoted as saying by The Palm Beach Post newspaper.

Police said Johnson had killed Jovanni because he had made an offensive remark about Islam, that Johnson had professed to following.

New York Hit With Lawsuit Over Racial Prioritization in Coronavirus Treatment Distribution

A new lawsuit has been filed against the state of New York, alleging that it violated the Constitution with a “racist” way of prioritizing patients for coronavirus vaccines.

“[W]e are suing the State of New York for deciding not merely questions of financial survival — but of physical survival — based upon skin color,” America First Legal President Stephen Miller said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital on Tuesday………….

Victim fatally shoots suspect during attempted car theft in Southwest Philadelphia
Police said the victim has a license to carry and was not injured.

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Philadelphia police are investigating a car theft that ended with a suspect being fatally shot.

Police initially reported this as an attempted carjacking, but have since released new details about what happened.

Police responded to the 5800 block of Cobbs Creek Parkway in Southwest Philadelphia at about 8 a.m. after a suspect attempted to steal the victim’s car.

Sources told Action News that the suspect attached yellow cables to attempt to tow away the car, but was shot by the homeowner who had come outside to see what was happening.

The car broke off from the cables and the suspect’s car ended up crashing into a school bus, sources said.

The suspect was rushed to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center where he died from his injuries.

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Studies Show That Anti-Police Protests Have Led to Rise in Violent Crime.

Since the anti-police movement came to prominence after the killing of Michael Brown in 2014 and exploded after the death of George Floyd in 2020, many reasonable people have speculated whether the protests against police have led to a rise in violent crime.

City Journal editor Heather Mac Donald once dubbed this idea the Ferguson Effect, tying the protests to higher rates of violent crime which have undone many of the strides law enforcement has taken in the previous decades.

Two recent studies — one brand new and one from just over two years ago — demonstrate that the Ferguson Effect is a real phenomenon. They provide evidence that the police protests that followed officer-involved shootings led to a decline in proactivity from police, which in turn allowed violent crime to increase.

The newest study, published in the Feb. 2022 issue of the Journal of Public Economics, demonstrates that “high-profile killings reduced policing activities.”

When they specifically looked at statistics in St. Louis in the aftermath of Brown’s killing, researchers Cheng Cheng and Wei Long made a discovery that shouldn’t surprise many people, as Charles Fain Lehman reports in City Journal:

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Alabama – ASA and Bloomberg Fight Against Constitutional Carry

U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- Bobby Timmons, director of the Alabama Sheriff’s Association (ASA), is so opposed to acknowledging your inherent right-to-carry, and wants so badly to protect the revenue stream from permit fees, that he openly opposes the Second Amendment and allies with anti-gun extremists. He said in a media interview that the ASA is working with a Bloomberg-backed, national anti-gun group in order to oppose the constitutional carry legislation currently in the Alabama Legislature.

From the 1819 News article:

“Timmons has claimed several times that the Second Amendment was not written to give citizens the right to carry a weapon in a concealed fashion, saying that the amendment was only written to allow citizens to have weapons to defend their homes.

Given his interpretation of the Second Amendment, 1819 News asked Timmons if ASA would support amending the Constitution to limit the Second Amendment to the possession of firearms only for the defense of a person’s home.

‘Oh yeah,’ Timmons said. ‘I’d be in favor of that. But, I mean, it would never get passed.’”

…

“When asked if permits were a significant revenue stream for Alabama Sheriffs, Timmons conceded this was true, but stressed that any such revenue would come from permits or taxes on the public.”

Joe Biden Admits More Gun Control Wouldn’t Have Stopped Synagogue Attacker

President Joe Biden took questions on Saturday’s Texas synagogue attack and suggested more gun control would not have stopped the attacker.

Reuters reports the attacker, 44-year-old Malik Faisal Akram, was a citizen of the United Kingdom.

Federal agents stormed the synagogue after a 10-h0ur hostage standoff and Akram is now dead.

Biden commented on the incident, mentioning more gun control, only to admit that more gun control would not have helped in this situation:

Allegedly, [Akram] purchased…[the weapons] on the street.  Now what that means, I don’t know.  Whether he purchased it from an individual in a homeless shelter or a homeless community, or whether — because that’s where he said he was — it’s hard to tell.  I just don’t know.

…The guns are — we should be — the idea of background checks are critical.  But you can’t stop something like this if someone is on the street buying something from somebody else on the street.

Biden then criticized the surging gun sales America has witnessed during the past two years: “There’s so many guns that have been sold of late; it’s just ridiculous.”

Breitbart News reported nearly 23 million guns were sold in 2020 and that the FBI conducted over 38,8 million National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks in 2021. The 38.8 is not a precise indicator of  the number of guns sold, but it does suffice to show that surge in gun sales continued into 2021.

It is important to understand nearly 23 millions guns sold in 2020, mentioned above, and the number sold after NICS checks in 2021 were all sold via background checks.

BLUF:
To Biden and Democrats, violent crime is a gun crime problem, but they ignore that 92% of violent crime has nothing to do with guns. And they ignore that defensive guns uses are four to five times more common than gun crimes.

The bottom line is that the media could do a much better job of asking politicians such as Biden tough questions on crime. If we want to save lives and protect people from violence, we need those questions asked.

What Reporters Should Ask Biden About Guns at His Promised Press Conference on Wednesday

President Biden’s remarks after the hostage situation at the synagogue in Texas leave more questions than answers.

What were the motivations for the attack occur? A full day after a Pakistani Muslim attacked a synagogue on the Jewish sabbath to gain the release of Aafia Siddiqui described as the “Lady of al Qaeda,” Biden doesn’t know. The synagogue was near where Siddiqui is held. But when asked why the attacker targeted that synagogue, Biden again responded that he didn’t know but promised more at a press conference on Wednesday.

Those answers are surely much better than the answers given by the FBI on Saturday, where they were not sure of the motive but ruled out the attack being “specifically related to the Jewish community.” The investigation should go forward, but it is troubling that the FBI’s immediately concluded no connection between a radical Pakistani Muslim trying to free a prominent al Qaeda member and an attack on a synagogue. The “massive backlash” forced the FBI to walk back its claim.

But there are other important problems with Biden’s comments. While he concedes that “you can’t stop something like this if someone is on the street buying something from somebody else on the street,” what he does know is that this type of attack occurs because “there’s so many guns that have been sold of late; it’s just ridiculous.”

His first suggested solution? Background checks. Presumably, he means background checks on the private transfer of guns – so-called “universal background checks.” The problem is that even if such a law had been in effect and perfectly enforced, it wouldn’t have stopped one mass public shooting this century.

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Today, January 18

1778 – James Cook discovers the Hawaiian Islands, naming them the “Sandwich Islands” in honor of the then First Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Sandwich

1896 – An X-ray generating machine is exhibited for the first time by H. L. Smith at Davidson College, North Carolina.

1911 – Eugene Ely performs the first landing on a ship, flying a Curtiss Pusher onto the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay.

1943 – The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rise up in against the German occupation.

1960 – Capital Airlines Flight 20, a Vickers Viscount, crashes into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia, killing all 50 aboard passengers and crew aboard.

1967 – Albert DeSalvo, the “Boston Strangler”, is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

1969 – United Airlines Flight 266, a Boeing 727, crashes into Santa Monica Bay killing all 38 passengers and crew aboard.

1977 – Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires’ disease.

1981 – Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield parachute off a Houston skyscraper, becoming the first 2 people to BASE jump from objects in all 4 categories: Buildings, Antennae, Spans (bridges), and Earth (cliffs).

1983 – The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe’s Olympic medals to his family after revoking them because he had been previously paid for playing 2 seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics

1990 – Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting operation.

1993 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is officially observed for the first time in all 50 US states.

Glenn Youngkin Defends Ban on ‘Racially Divisive’ Critical Race Theory in Virginia

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin defended his decision to outlaw critical race theory in public schools — slamming the controversial philosophy as “racially divisive.”

Youngkin made the remarks following a decision to issue an executive order banning school lessons that define racism as an institutional problem deeply embedded in American society.

“There’s not a course called critical race theory,” Youngkin said on “Fox News Sunday.”………………….

Brother of Texas Synagogue Terrorist Reveals Akram Had a Criminal Record, Questions Why He Was Given a Visa

The brother of Malik Faisal Akram, the UK citizen who was shot and killed after an 11-hour hostage standoff at a synagogue in Texas, has claimed that his brother had a previous criminal record.

Gulbar Akram, the brother of terrorist Malik Faisal Akram, who took four hostages at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas on Saturday, has revealed that his brother had a criminal record in comments to UK media, raising questions about how he was allowed into the United States……………..

Worker stabbed, fatally shoots attacker at Prime + Proper in downtown Detroit

DETROIT (AP) – Police say a restaurant employee fatally shot a man armed with knife who was attacking him in Downtown Detroit.

Detroit police said there was an altercation between the employee at Prime and Proper restaurant and the person who ultimately stabbed him about 12:10 a.m. Sunday.

Police say the stabbing victim is in stable condition. No other injuries have been reported…………..

Sanilac County man shoots home invasion suspect

FORESTVILLE, MI – A home invasion suspect is in police custody after a homeowner managed to shoot the alleged perpetrator during the attack, according to a news release from the Sanilac County Sheriff’s Office.

At roughly 4:50 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 15, Sanilac County Central Dispatch received a call about a man who had been shot in the Village of Forestville, according to the release. Dispatchers learned a Forestville resident had been stabbed during a home invasion, but was able to obtain a firearm and shoot the suspect, according to the release.

The victim, a 33-year-old Forestville man, was taken to Harbor Beach Community Hospital for his injuries and was later released, according to the release. The 37-year-old suspect, a resident of Carsonville, was taken to Deckerville Community Hospital and later transferred to Ascension St. Mary’s Hospital in Saginaw. After his treatment, police took the suspect into custody.

The suspect is lodged at the Sanilac County Jail while he awaits arraignment, according to the release. The case is still active and police will not release further details until the suspect is formally charged and the incident is investigated further.

You can’t stop the signal

THE FGC-9 IN MYANMAR: 3D GUNS AND THE FUTURE OF GUERILLA WARFARE

February 1st, 2021, is the day the Myanmar military seized power, which immediately led to civil unrest. That unrest began as peaceful, pro-democracy street demonstrations, but in short order, peaceful demonstrations gave way to guerilla warfare. The situation evolved and changed rapidly due to an ever-escalating and violent military-lead government. Now it seems the power of the internet has delivered a Christmas present to Guerilla fighters in Myanmar, in the form of the FGC-9.

Government forces outnumber and out-arm the Myanmar guerillas by a wide margin, and have made use of machine guns, rockets, and tanks over the past year of conflict. The Guerrillas constantly find themselves outclassed by the government’s superior firepower, and have been searching for a means to turn the tide.

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He never had any ‘credibility’. The stories are that everyone in Congress knew him as a blowhard, lying bigot from day one. The left knew it but they and their lackies in the media wanted to fool enough people to get Trump out.

The moment Joe Biden finally lost his credibility

If President Joe Biden’s disorderly and lethal Afghanistan withdrawal was the moment that fractured voters’ regard for him, then his vicious Atlanta speech last week may be the moment that defines his presidency.

Speaking Tuesday at Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, Biden uttered venomous, brutal accusations lacking factual basis. His shouting-in-the-wind delivery was inexplicable, and his decision to lash out at members of his own party — Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema — appears to have only strengthened their resolve not to give in to his demands.

Biden called those who disagree with his political views on legislation “domestic enemies.” He compared them to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and former Alabama Democratic Party Committeeman and ardent, violent segregationist Bull Connor. In American politics, that is about as divisive as one can get — at least he didn’t mention Hitler.

Biden bears no resemblance today to the man who ran for president, pledging over and over again to unify the country and restore a sense of calm and normalcy to politics. From the day he was sworn in to office and signed executive orders putting thousands out of work in the energy industry, he ceased to be that guy from Scranton that people thought he was.

He has not been that guy since he invited, through ill-considered policy changes, untold numbers of illegal immigrants across our borders. He has not been that guy since he miserably failed the troops and the nation’s image during his catastrophic tail-between-his-legs retreat from Afghanistan.

Biden, despite having no mandate and only the barest legislative majority for his party, has turned divide-and-conquer politics into the solution for everything, including the pandemic.

You don’t warn a nation that a winter of “severe illness and death” is coming for the unvaccinated because your aim is to bring people together; those words are intended as a threat and a slight, just like his resurrection of George Wallace in last week’s speech to score cheap political points.

The scope of Biden’s fall from grace — from glib middle-class Pennsylvanian to venomous, lying politico who will say anything to please left-wing activists — has been staggering.

This has not gone unnoticed by voters. Last week’s Quinnipiac poll showed that a plurality of voters (49%) now believe Biden is doing more to divide the country than to unite it.

Biden’s approval rating among adults was at an abysmal 33% points; independents gave him 24%; Hispanics a bit more at 28%. His approval rating within his own party has fallen 12 points since November.

The media tried to write off his fall as temporary last August, when a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed the public disapproving of his incompetent performance in Afghanistan by a 2-1 ratio. At the time, this event marked the first time in his presidency his approval rating was net negative.

But in the time since, Biden has only kept losing support.

This moment and the associated loss of credibility that Biden is suffering will have lingering effects in the American psyche. They might not remember all of the words, but they will remember Biden’s vicious, nasty, bad-faith accusations, his flagrant falsehoods, and his petulant tone.

As with Afghanistan, the media and the people who surround Biden will dismiss the public reaction, and Biden will be worse off for it.