We're Running Out Of Bullets

Gun dealers are running out of bullets. But folks don't know if that because of the coming race war thanks to Obama's election or if people just fear increased crime during a bad economy.

Selling bullets may be the most secure job in Florida as long as supplies last. After months of heavy buying, gun dealers across the state are experiencing shortages. Some say it began with the election of President Barack Obama. Others say it's about the economic downturn or fear of crime. Whatever the reasons, ammunition has been selling like plywood and bottled water in the days before a hurricane. "The survivalist in all of us comes out," said John Ritz, manager of East Orange Shooting Sports in Winter Park. "It's more about protecting what you have." Demand for bullets is so strong that suppliers are restricting deliveries. "Where we used to get 20 to 30 cases [in a shipment], we may get two to three cases now," said Vic Grechniw of Florida Ammo Traders in Tampa. "The supply just isn't there. . . . Everybody is pretty much rushing out to get their hands on whatever they can." Most in demand is handgun ammunition, including 9 mm and .45-caliber for semiautomatic pistols and .38-caliber for revolvers. Clerks at local Walmart stores, including Apopka and Kissimmee, say those sizes, along with .22-caliber, are on back order at the chain's warehouses. American gun owners buy about 7 billion rounds of ammunition yearly, according to the National Rifle Association. It has been warning its several million members that Obama favors raising taxes on bullets to make them prohibitively expensive.

A Georgia-based arms dealer says that sales have doubled since the November election because people are "stockpiling." Today the Christianist news site World Net Daily began advertising a march on Washington for gun rights.

A coalition is being assembled to march on Washington to deliver to Congress, the president and even the U.S. Supreme Court a message that the Second Amendment is critical as the single right that allows Americans to ensure continuation of all of the others. The march is being spearheaded by the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners, but also is being coordinated with the National Rifle Association, Gun Owners of American, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownerships, Second Amendment Foundation, Virginia Citizens Defense League, Ohioans for Concealed Carry, Virginia Shooting Sports Association and others. Plans tentatively are for tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people to assemble in Washington next spring, in 2010, to demonstrate broad national support for the recognition and preservation of the Second Amendment.