http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 12_pf.html
Bullets are speeding faster out of gun shops in U.S.
A SHORTAGE OF AMMUNITION
Demand is up despite drop in crime rate
By David A. Fahrenthold and Fredrick Kunkle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
In a year of job losses, foreclosures and bag lunches, Americans have spent record-breaking amounts of money on guns and ammunition. The most obvious sign of their demand: empty ammunition shelves.
At points during the past year, bullets have been selling faster than factories could make them.
Gun owners have bought about 12 billion rounds of ammunition in the past year, industry officials estimate. That's up from 7 billion to 10 billion in a normal year.
It has happened, oddly, at a time when the two concerns that usually make people buy guns and bullets -- crime and increased gun control -- seem less threatening than usual.
The explanation for the run on bullets lies partly in economics: Once rounds were scarce, people hoarded them, which made them scarcer.
But the rush for bullets, like this year's increase in gun sales, also says something about how suspicious the two sides in the gun-control debate are of each other, even at a time when the issue is on Washington's back burner....
