By Chad Douglas
Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 4:39 p.m.
Read more: Local, Economy, Crime, Ammunition Shortage, Ammo Shortage, Butch's Sports World, Butch Herold
You may remember at the beginning of this year, there was a run on ammunition and guns because people thought President Obama and a democratic Congress would change gun laws.
According to the Associated Press, nine months later, there has been no movement on any law on gun control out of Washington D.C.
In fact, the President recently signed a law that allows people to carry loaded guns in national parks.
We wondered if there is still a shortage of ammunition out there.
Are you seeing a shortage on ammo still?
"Yes we are. We are seeing a shortage in handgun ammo. And we may have a shortage this fall for rifles. And that could be a problem," says Butch Herald, owner of Butch's Sports World in Palmyra.
The reason that could be a problem is because gun deer season starts in the middle of November. There is a chance ammo makers like Remington and Winchester could get caught up by then. The reason for the possible shortage of rifle ammunition goes back to the manufacturers. Since there was such a run on handgun ammo earlier in the year, ammunition manufacturers shut down rifle lines in an effort to make more handgun ammo.
"I don't want to start a run on ammo, but right now things are really tight and we do have a warehouse with the most popular sizes...30 odd 6 could be tight by the end of the year," says Herold.
Another problem has been finding reloading supplies so gun owners could repack ammo themselves. And for the same reason, ammo makers shut down those lines to generate more ammunition. Butch Herold says some people are getting ammunition imported from Russia. He also says he's lowest on handgun ammo like 40 millimeter, nine millimeter, and 357.
So far, shotgun shells and muzzle loading supplies are not affected by the shortage.