Shortly after the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut, the United States Department of Homeland Security started buying large amounts of ammunition from manufacturers, leaving little supply for the public.
The Department of Homeland Security said it wants to buy 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition needed to train law enforcement in the next four or five years.
Cody Brigham, gun sales representative for Walmart said conspiracy theorists think this is because the government is preparing for a war with the American people. Talk of such a war has sent citizens into a panic, causing them to buy any ammunition available.
Charles Edwards, owner of Sure Shot sporting goods store in Moscow, said it seemed like the same day as the Sandy Hook shooting, the ammunition supply went out the window.
“We have not tried to limit anyone on how much ammo they can buy because what there is doesn’t last very long,” Edwards said.
Edwards said there weren’t complaints at first, just the repeated phrase, “I can’t believe you’re sold out already.” He said recently people have started to get annoyed and agitated with the lack of supply.
“We decided to put up a sign in front of our bathroom telling customers they had to buy a gun to use it,” Edwards said. “Needless to say the joke didn’t last long before people got angry.”
Zak Lierman, gun sales representative at Tri-State, said sales immediately skyrocketed due to people panicking at the idea of a war with the government.
“At first people were buying guns, but then they realized the guns were useless if they didn’t have the rounds to shoot out of them,” Lierman said.
Lierman said he was not allowed to talk about the specifics of Tri-States ammunition shipments, but said he could discuss ammunition manufacturers in general.
“ATK down in Lewiston cranks out eight million .22 rounds a day,” Lierman said. “They just don’t know exactly where the rounds are going.”
Lierman said customers were originally limited to five boxes of ammunition per day, but because supplies have become scarce they are limited to two.
Brigham said after the conspiracy theories came out people swarmed the ammo case.
“I personally think people were scared of assault rifles being banned and so they bought all the ammo they could,” Brigham said.
Brigham said Wal-Mart has been back-ordered on ammunition for a while.
“Customers were complaining that one guy could come in and buy all the ammo in the case while everyone else got nothing,” Brigham said. “We decided to limit sales to three boxes per person per day.”
Brigham said even as an employee who gets first word of any new ammunition shipments, he still finds it difficult to buy ammo before it’s gone.
“People are getting angry because we do not feel like a company should tell us how much ammo we can buy,” Brigham said.
Brigham said he estimates things should return to normal within the next eight months, while Edwards said it will be closer to a year.
Erik Fink can be reached at [email protected]