Ammunition shortage still impacting local gun stores, hunters 2 years later

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – A new report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearm industry trade association, shows around 5.4 million people purchased a gun for the first time in 2021.

But, getting your hands on ammunition has been an ongoing issue since the pandemic began.

“In the economy, you have fridges that are hard to get, you have sofas that are hard to get, you have cars, computer chips, there are a lot of things that are hard to get, firearms and ammunition are no different,” said Joshua Davis, the owner of Louisiana Firearms in Baton Rouge.

He believes this ammo shortage is linked to supply chain issues and more.

“It’s hard to get raw materials. It’s hard to get raw materials to a factory. It’s hard to forage those materials to make whatever you’re trying to make,” Davis said.

He says another reason there is such an ammunition shortage is due to the fact that the gun manufacturer Remington went bankrupt.

“And whenever they went bankrupt, a lot of other companies were afraid to expand,” he said.

Davis believes demand for ammunition and guns can either increase or decrease, depending on whichever political party is in power. And, he’s seen that firsthand in his stores.

“Regardless of which way you lean, left or right. If you have a Republican in the in the White House, people think, ‘hey, gun rights are safe’, so the demand goes down. If you have a Democrat in the White House, everybody thinks well they are out to get our guns. So, demand goes up. The cycle goes back and forth, and it’s been like that for the past 30 to 40 years,” said Davis.

In his business, specialty firearms are the hardest to find ammo for right now.

“It’s been going on for two years now. I think March will make the anniversary of two years. It’s funny whenever it first started, everyone else was like, in a few months it will get better. Six months it will get better. Next year it will get better. Well, here we are two years later, and things haven’t gotten better,” said Davis.

With deer season officially over in Louisiana, gun store owners are just hopeful to have their shelves stocked with ammunition soon.