By Selwyn Harris
In a town where guns are flaunted openly with unabashed fervor, a nationwide ammunition shortage has not spared Pahrump by a long shot.
Many gun enthusiasts in the community say they believe the shortage was triggered by the re-election of Democratic President Barack Obama.
Fears centered on the belief that Obama’s re-election meant stricter gun control laws were likely, perhaps even ammunition taxes would be enacted by the federal government.
At present, those fears have not been realized, but the president has indicated a renewed endorsement of gun restrictions in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings last December.
Local gun dealers say they cannot seem to carry enough rounds to satisfy the voracious appetite of local gun enthusiasts.
Walt Rubio manages WR Sporting, LLC, on Frontage Road. He offered his reasoning as to why guns and ammo are flying off the shelves.
“To put it quite bluntly, it’s the government. People seem to be extremely concerned about the way things are going in the country. Consequently, they are buying everything they can get their hands on,” he said.
While attending a “shot show” back in January, Rubio said he learned that gun and ammo manufacturers are having a tough time simply keeping up with the high demand.
“The show is for dealers and wholesalers and I talked to most of the ammo manufacturers there and they are working 24/7 to try and produce enough ammo and they can’t keep up with it,” he said.
Rubio said that on a recent trip to Las Vegas for a gun show at a casino he was completely amazed by the throngs of attendees at the event.
“I was at South Point with my grandson and the line snaked around the casino. It was like a six-hour wait just to buy ammo. When I got in there, they were limiting sales of ammo and I have been getting phone calls from Vegas, Henderson, and all over Arizona. The farthest one away was Dallas, Texas looking for ammunition,” he said.
Rubio also said that the shortage is not limited to one specific type of ammo.
He did say that it may change in the coming months.
“It is everything. There is nothing in particular even down to the .22′s. It’s amazing because .22′s are just as high on the hit list as anything else. You can’t get anything. I deal with five different distributors and every one of them has nothing so you have to put back-orders in. My personal opinion is that I feel towards the end of summer things may stabilize and we’ll start to get the supply back, but until that happens I have no idea what’s going to go on,” he said.
Robert Brentlinger is the owner of Master at Arms on Thousandaire.
He said the run on guns and ammo is nothing new to him.
Since late 2008, he has seen a sharp uptick in customers wanting to buy and stockpile firearms and ammunition.
Like Rubio, he too believes that sales have shot up due to fears that the federal government may enact harsh restrictions on those wanting to purchase firearms and bullets.
“It seems to be a multifold problem. Number one is the unprecedented demand for ammunition for whatever reason. People are afraid that the government for some reason is either going to ban ammunition sales, limit sales in some way, or put high taxes on ammunition. As a result, they are buying it in unprecedented quantities, which has pushed the price up and pushed the amount of available ammunition down,” he said.
Rumors are rampant online that federal government is also stockpiling billions of rounds of ammunition.
Former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin last month said on her official Facebook page dated Feb. 27, 2013 that civil unrest is on the horizon in the United States due mainly to the state of the economy.
“If we are going to wet our proverbial pants over 0.3 percent in annual spending cuts when we’re running up trillion dollar annual deficits, then we are done. Put a fork in us. We are finished. We are going to default eventually and that’s why the feds are stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest,” one post reads.
While Brentlinger did not mention Palin’s unsubstantiated comment, he did say that the federal government normally purchases large amounts of munitions following the new year.
“The first of the year is always a time when large government contracts come through and the military starts their procurements for the year. I understand that military and government procurements this year have been extremely high for ammunition. In a lot of cases they appear to be wanting their ammunition up front instead of spread out through the year. As normally, they seem to be wanting all of it as quickly as possible,” he remarked.
Brentlinger also noted that such a demand does put a strain on manufacturers, which in part explains limited amount of ammo for civilian consumers.
“The ammunition companies are not able to fulfill the demand of ammunition for both government and military contracts, and civilian sales, which are all demanding such unprecedented numbers at this time at once, so there have been huge backlogs on all of the common calibers such as nine millimeters, .223′s, and .22 long rifles. They are all in very short supply,” he said.
One option for those seeking ammo is the so-called “do it yourself” method, which Brentlinger said is gaining popularity as of late. Gun owners are also experiencing shortages there as well.
“Reloading components have gone the same way as ammunition. It is very hard to get powder and primers for reloading. It seems that the majority of materials are going into loaded ammunition and so there have not been the quantity of reloading components normally available out there to get. People are buying reloading components at an unprecedented number. People who can’t get their standard ammunition have gone back to reloading to supplement their ammunition supply and found that there’s nothing left on the shelves. Powder, primers and bullets are in short supply also,” he said.
The short supply has also led to higher prices for buyers.
Brentlinger said the cost for ammo nationwide has increased dramatically.
“With internet sales, a standard brick of .22′s was around $40 average. Now I’ve heard of $70 to $100 for a brick of .22 caliber ammunition, which is about a 50-to-70 percent markup,” he said.
One local resident was fortunate enough to purchase ammo for his .22 caliber rifle at Master at Arms.
Lance Shropshire said he searched long and hard to find what he was looking for.
“This is great because I live right across the street. I only use them for sport just to target shoot with my kids about twice a month. It’s just to have fun. I don’t go out shooting animals or anything like that because it’s not for me,” he said.
Meanwhile, a local resident at Rubio’s shop said he had no such luck while visiting a gun show in Las Vegas.
After waiting most of the day, he returned to Pahrump without bullets.
“It opened at 8 a.m., and when I got there at 9:30 in the morning, the parking lot was closed. I couldn’t get into it. I came back later in the afternoon to give it one more try. The parking lot was open and when I went in all of the ammo was sold out. I saw people with handcarts taking cases of ammo out the door and to their vehicle,” he said.
Civilians are not the only ones who have been affected by the ammunition drought.
Even Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said his department is feeling the effects of the short supply as deputies routinely use their firearms for range shooting and target practice on a regular basis, which is mandated by the office.
“We also have to wait. Law enforcement has to wait. We do have enough ammunition for our job and we have to re-qualify at least twice a year,” he said.
The sheriff agreed that large volumes of ammo purchases made by federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, which reportedly is looking to buy up to 1.1 billion rounds of ammunition, could be one cause of the shortage.
If there is any good news for gun owners, Brentlinger said at least one type of ammunition seems to be available, at least for now.
“Right now, ammunition for shotguns are the only ones available in good quantities,” Brentlinger said.
Amazing how stupid and irrational some people can be. They (Fox News and the like) have been stoking the fears of the ignorant for almost 20 years now. And yet they keep coming back for more.
I would guess “the stupid and irrational” happen to be the ones not in agreement with you? Simply there is a shortage of ammo because hundreds of thousands of private citizens are scared to death that their handguns will be taken away from them by a liberal President, Congressmen, and their new federal police forces. Their only solution is to protect themselves with the very thing for which this Amendment was written – an out of control federal government.
Exactly, and that is why people are stocking up. Some people like mrribbert will never get it, because they would much rather see us disarmed.
The good part of this whole gun and ammo crisis brought on by Dianne Feinstein and her gun ban plans is it has brought millions of new gun owners nationwide into gun ownership. Young and old.
Just think, mrribbert has a whole new generation to hate now lol
“The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms, is as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in Government.” Thomas Jefferson
Shop Walmart or online for the best prices.
alas, but Walmart shelves are empty, and have been.
@ Black Star Ranch. I have been following mrribberts comments and tend to agree with your post. With me it is how Stupid one person can be. Yup. You got it on the first guess.
And yet your fears are only in your head. President Obama has done NOTHING to infringe upon the 2nd Amendment. NOTHING! As a matter of fact, since he was elected, he has EXPANDED gun rights. But you are still afraid. So go ahead and call me names. I refuse to live in fear. I am not surprised that moronic Republicans are afraid. After all, that is what motivates Republicans. Fear. This is a proven scientific FACT! You are motivated by fear more than anything else.
There is another solution. It’s called an education. You may want to try it sometime.
Actually Democrats irrational fear of common style rifles is what caused this. Democrats live in a total state of fear, fear of accidents, fear of illness, fear of losing power over the little people.
Obama is behind a coordinated effort to get states to ban these weapons, its fact, the language in all the bills is almost identical. I don’t know who you are trying to kid, but some of us have these things called EYES and EARS, and we saw him give at least 2 speeches on gun “violence” and how he wants to ban guns. Of course putting old “Shotgun blast” Biden in charge of it, almost guarantees nothing will ever come of it.
Oh and my education? Call me when you have a masters in mail delivery ok?
Yawn. Five years you have been saying the same thing. So is this the year he finally bans guns? Btw, mail delivery? Huh?
Don’t you know master’s degrees are elitist? That’s one more thing the armed masses are scared of, so they feel obligated to make jokes about it.
The only thing I’m afraid of is uneducated morons stockpiling firearms and ammo.
The only thing I’m afraid of is the uneducated morons who will willingly allow this Marxist Government to destroy the greatest country since the beginning of time.
When the system is corrupt absolutely you must seek representation by those who are absolutely incorruptible.
“In the 2016 election a third party candidate will win the White House” —-William Wallace
Prove to us Phleazze !!! show us the proof (edit: no name calling. We’re grown ups here)
I know only One Expansion Wrights and not for Americans yes that Is correct “Fast and Furious.” with Holder and Obama’s hands all over
it, and the Lies it was started by the G.W Bush Administration!……NOT TRUE!! And a Border Agent death not answered for !
Under Obama to many tragedy’s in Bengazi ,Lybia ,seal team six Killed on a Chinook? 13 FT Hood Soldiers by a So called Psychiatrist Maniac on the FBI watch List In Uniform ? ask the Chicagoans who live in the # 1 Free zone Murder rate in America Holder and Obamas Home Town thugocracy Chit-town,Ill.
Thank God the SCOTUS last week rejected the Appeal on the Arguments on second Amedment wrigts the repeal on there Unlawful Gun Bans In Chicago ,not one Word on Gun Violence and from whom, Until an innocent Young Girl was shot down Oh Obama what an idiot you are !
I bought ammo when it was cheap.
These poor slobs that are trying to stock up now will pay the price because the government is buying all the ammo they can find.
Why is our government buying a billion rounds of ammo?
Panic buying has created a shortage of the most popular calibers of ammunition. Those who see the scary, Marxist, Communist, Fascist, Kenyan in the White House as someone who wants to take away their guns, put a limit on how many rounds of ammunition they can buy and the jack-booted thugs knock their doors down and physically take away all their guns and ammo. It’s coming. The drones (black helicopters are passe) are flying overhead watching us all, beaming radio waves into our brains and fluoridating the water.
Yep, gonna happen.
Please show us FEMA Camps do not exist!
Are you one of many cowards Anonymous on you know Who Radio Show ?
Now Odumba spends more money and re deploys west coast IBMS And Look who Odumba apt to the SECOD !and the CIA WOW we are in deep trouble Know your real facts and from whom ! FOX over MSNBC and CNN any time ! I see a false falg in the air to declare marshal law!
In 09 Obama continued the Bill to declare Marshal Law under Army North Command and Control all of Commerce and set up Check point’s. Did you see the bank run in Greece ? US $ is the res currency of the world the Euro is dead ! and the chip is ready for implementation !
Also Facist Dictatorship In NY and NYC,CO,MO, and Calif and Now NV All out of state Carpet baggers in NV leg called Dumbocraps ! by the way they held a closed doormetting against Gun Lobbie Opositions in Las Vegas Judiciary meetings Un Lawful,will there be law suits You betcha !
The DHS is the new LAW dog of America the Standing Army Over all LE Agencys Fed and State ,fusion DHS Centers are in every major City why did they buy JHP in dif cal and Slug and Buck Shot rounds no matter what ammo surplus excuse is needed why JHP for the DHS and 7000 AR self defense wepaons not called Asaault weapons what a Hypocrasyand used Militayr Command bradly Vehicles for the DHS swat for Cahos on An Economic Imploasion ?or are we waiting for China to declare BK on The U.S.A ? our F F warned us about this and I have the wright to carry Machine gun if i want, to defend my Home and Town we are at war & still Under A National Emergency and Obama and the Fed Res will not save America ! did you think Obama will get away with more Lies and campaigns again?
You showed your Colors at the DNC in PHL,PA to Amercia and Obama lied on the Second Amendmemt! why is China demanding Obama to Dis Arm Us !
Sandy Hook,Aurora, is a Set up and Over 50 million babies Aborted in AMERICA is a drop in the hat? what Acid laced KOOL AID true in the 60′s Does to the Liberal Sick Minded brain washed in American Universities ? I Know the Communist Manefesto !
Get out Of NV and America if you hate it so much !
Spelling and grammar would go a long way in helping giving some validity to your points. At this point, you appear to be illiterate.
Uhh,”helping giving”? Hmmm….ok!
Ask the law abiding citizens of Louisiana, New Orleans who it was that confiscated their guns after Katrina. The law abiding citizens were protecting their property against looters and worse. Poorly informed progressives need to rethink their position on guns and understand they are for self protection. Guns are known as the great equalizer to put the weak on a better footing against the evil and powerful.
“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms.”
– James Madison