The firearms and training industries are subject to ebbs and flows just like any other market. There are times when ammo, firearms, and accessories are readily available and there are times when those things are nearly impossible to come by and priced at a premium. Right now, ammunition and firearms are easy to come by and plentiful. But that will not last forever; it never does.
One thing that is very common to see after a disaster makes the news is legislators trying to push knee-jerk legislation or policies to quell the general public's fears. “Someone needs to do something about XYZ” can always be heard after a catastrophic event. Just in the time that I’ve been involved with guns and training, I’ve seen this pattern over and over again. Any time there is a looming threat of more restrictions to your freedoms, the gun community will notoriously go buy up anything and everything gun-related. This always creates a problem for the uninitiated, having not seen or experienced this pattern before.
The Aurora movie theater shooting and Sandy Hook both happened in 2012. At the time I was working at a local gun range and got to see this overnight shift happen for the first time as a responsibly armed citizen, having not been involved with firearms or training until a little before then. The market took years to recover. We went from having ammo that was sold for barely above our cost to having absolutely no ammo at all for months at a time. Every other store across the country was experiencing the same issues. Magazines were impossible to find or going for 500% of their market value. People would line up outside of the major big box retailers hours before the store opened, just to potentially get a crack at an ammo delivery from the night before. Some retailers were also putting limits in place of one or two boxes per customer just to try to spread it out as much as they could. The 2016 election and the lead-up to it brought the same song and dance of pending gun legislation that brought on another wave of panic buying and empty shelves.
Then, in 2020 and 2021, we saw the same thing with the lockdowns and the riots across the nation. In 2021 alone, 5.4 million Americans bought their first firearm. Millions of people were buying whatever guns and ammo they could get their hands on. Many of these new gun owners had no knowledge of anything gun-related: Basic firearm safety, how to shoot, what type of ammo to get, and pertinent laws to keep themselves out of trouble. The only thing they knew was “I need a gun and I need it now.” You get my point. That type of influx of customers is an absolute shock to the system. Most “seasoned” gun owners and responsibly armed citizens had already covered their bases and this wasn’t as devastating to them. The “make hay while the sun shines” mentality can usually save you a lot of money and hassle by buying readily available 9mm for as low as $.17/per round, versus $.75/per round or more while everyone and their mom is also trying to buy ammo. After having been involved with shooting and training for years and trying to convince her, my mom FINALLY decided in 2020 that she wanted to get a firearm and learn how to shoot. Lucky for her, I had already been “stocking up” for just the occasion.
The point I’m getting at is that right now is the time to do something. If you’ve been interested in getting a firearm, now is the time. If you’ve been thinking about getting training, whether it be firearms or medical training, now is the time. If you’ve been thinking about buying some extra pistol or rifle magazines, now is the time. If you can afford to buy some extra ammo to have squirreled away as backstock, now is the time. With the same amount of surety that the sun will rise tomorrow, it is certain that the coming election year will bring pushes for more gun control. They always do. Don’t be caught at the mercy of price-gouging retailers or scalpers in the Academy parking lot.
All that being said, this is not meant to be a scare tactic, this is simply a word of warning from someone who has seen this happen time and time again. Unfortunately, some of these things are beyond our control, but we can control how we prepare for and respond to them.
If you are looking to purchase a firearm for the first time and don’t know where to start, training is always the best first step. Come take a class or a private lesson with us and get yourself going down the right track. We here at FirstLine are passionate about people and are here to help those who want to better prepare themselves and their loved ones for whatever life may bring.
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