Panic buy report: I went to a big sportings good store last week and was shocked at how bare the shelves were.

My Ruger AR 556. 

As you are surely aware of, there is a nationwide ammo shortage and record gun sales. This is due to several factors, including the Coronavirus pandemic, the riots and unrest and fears of a Joe Biden presidency. That means that things are pretty empty at gun stores across the country.

While I was on vacation last week I took a trip to the local big box sporting goods store in Green Bay Wisconsin. Though the place was fairly busy the shelves were pretty much bare in the firearms section. I was able to find what I wanted to get, a soft case for my AR to go along with the double hard case I own, but other than that the store was empty. 

There were firearms for sale. Most of what was for sale was long guns, almost all shotguns and bolt action rifles. There were a couple of higher end AR's for sale and one CZ Bren 805 pistol, of all things, but none of them were cheap. Handguns were available but almost exclusively more expensive models as well as revolvers, which don't seem to be selling for some reason. It makes little sense to me since revolvers tend to be cheaper and are fine for self defense. 

As for ammunition, there was next to none. Of the more common rounds the only thing I could find were .308 and .30-06. And it wasn't the cheap stuff either, it was the more expensive rounds. As for the more common 9mm, .22 LR, 5.56/.223, .40 or even .45 ACP I didn't find any. There just wasn't any ammunition for sale. 

Thankfully, I wasn't in an extreme need of ammo. I have quite a bit of .223 and 9mm left, along with quite a bit of .22. However, it wasn't so much that I felt that I could actually go to the gun range. I have enough if a crisis happens (or the current one gets worse), but I don't think there is much chance of me going to the gun range anytime soon. It would have been a good idea for me to have bought several big boxes of ammo back when they were available... 

This is a problem that will likely get worse before it gets better. This is as worse as I have ever seen, worse then the panic buy after the Sandy Hook shooting back in 2012. Supplies of ammo and weapons took years to recover from that but things are even worse now. With everyone and their mother buying guns and ammo it's going to take a long time for the gun industry to recover.