Get Yer Ammo Now Before They're Gone, Boys and Girls...

Maybe it's me, but the last six months or so, I have noticed an general increase in anything firearm related. No more evident was this than when I went to my local gunshop recently (3 weeks ago) to buy a few rounds of .223 Remington and happened upon one of the two boxes that had a lower sticker price. The clerk swore under her breath, and said, "Fine, I'll give two boxes to you at the same price." I asked her why the price discrepancy, and she said, "price of ammo went up". Now, I sort of knew this for the .22 rounds that I bought in December, compared to the cheaper price that I got the same rounds for in August. At the time, I was told that the price shift was due to the Canadian dollar weakening. Makes sense. I asked if it had anything to do with Obama winning the U.S. election. Maybe, is the general answer received by many with whom I've spoken.

I even more recently (yesterday) thought I'd buy another box of the .223, since it seemed like it was in short supply, and when the lady got the box out, the price tag was higher than 3 weeks ago...the total jump from last year's price to yesterday's price was something like 23%. I didn't end up buying the ammo, since I figured that I don't shoot .223 that often, but I wonder whether I should have bought the box while I was there.

I have noticed everything from airguns to air rifles to firearms have been increasing in price, as well as the ammo. I find it hard to believe that all this has to do with the Canadian dollar. If nothing else, you would think that prices would be lowered in these crappy economic times. But I did a little bit of digging, and the firearms industry is doing just fine. In fact, demand has far outstripped supply recently, and there have been a lot of people suggesting that Obama is on the cusp of implementing his anti-gun agenda, if he hasn't already started. One would have to be a complete idiot to believe that Obama is not going to do anything restrictive when it comes to guns. His voting record indicates that he is a staunch gun controller, and he has surrounded himself with people who share the same view.

I was reading about a report that has circulated around the internet that says that Canadian officials feel a certain affinity with Obama and would like to test the waters with an ammunition import ban, partuclarly "military-type" of rounds like the NATO 5.56x45mm and 7.65x51mm, amongst others. Essentially, you will see rounds like the .223 and .308 affected, as well as .50BMG and others.

Now, this is nothing new. And it is consistent with what I have been seeing - for instance, you'd be hard-pressed to find the Butler Creek 25-round mag for the Ruger 10/22 in any Canadian store nowadays, unless it's old stock, and even then, it would have been already snatched up. The U.S. government last year decided to stop the export of these to Canada, since they feared that it would make the 10/22 look more military-like with a large capacity clip. Yet, you can find the 25 round clip for the Remington 597 (similar class gun as the 10/22) anywhere. Also, for those who have restricted PALs in Canada, you may have a harder time finding the popular AR-15, as the Canadian government considers it in the "assault rifle" class and sets the AR-15 as a restricted weapon, because of its military and bad-ass type of look. And it shoots the .223 round, which is considered "military class". Yet, you can easily find non-restricted semi-automatic rifles that shoot much more powerful calibers, but they are not put in such a scrutinized class, because they "look less dangerous" and look more like a hunting rifle (which they are).

Anyway, I can see the collective governments of our two countries coming to some sort of agreement on limiting available guns and ammunition. Even though I support Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government party, I get the sense that while he may be a fiscal conservative and to a degree a social one, the guns issue is not high on his priority list. Consider the fact that there was much talk of the Conservative scrapping the hated Canadian long-gun registry. Harper's been in power for 3+ years now, and the registry is still on the books. If you couple this with his seemingly positive first experience with President Obama during his visit last month, you would think that they were best buddies.

Anyway, the point is that I can personally substantiate the fact that ammo and guns are going up in price. Some guns are now no longer sold at my gunshop, even higher power air rifles - the reasons remain unknown (at least to me) though I have my suspicions. Your best bet at this time would be to stock up on ammo as much as possible. No, this is not an alarmist approach as with stocking up bottled water during the Y2K scenario a decade ago. That was based on speculation and conjecture and not really based on any concrete evidence that the world was going to blow up. Of course, I am not suggesting that now, but what I am saying is that I can read the tea leaves as much as the next guy, and seeing the trend in the past year has led me to believe that at some point, law abiding gun owners will have more restrictions put on them than ever before, and while I detest the act of hoarding, sometimes you need to in order to preserve your way of life, as well as defend your individual rights. At the very least, you will know that you are contributing to probably the only active and flourishing industry in these bad economic times.