Cops running out of bullets because gun nuts have bought them all

It seems that so many gun nuts are buying up ammunition, in the fear that President Obama will take away their precious guns, that there’s now an ammo shortage in our country that’s directly affecting police departments.Things are so bad that even Walmart has been rationing ammo sales since January
Here’s AP on the nationwide spike in sales and the effect its had on nationwide stockpiles:

 

Now for some specifics.  Take the town of Jenks, Oklahoma.  The Jenks Police Department says they can’t get the guns or ammo they need because prices have skyrocketed and supplies have dwindled, in part thanks to gun-nut-landia buying everything in stock:

“Most police departments are having a very difficult time even getting the necessary ammunition for handguns, shotguns and especially rifles,” Arthur said. “With the delay in ammunition, some departments are limiting the number of rounds they carry in their handgun because of the shortage of ammunition. We get to the point where it is difficult to have enough ammo to train and also equip the officers.”

Or Greer, South Carolina.  They’re running out of bullets, and they don’t even have the ammunition they need to train officers:
Police departments in Michigan and Indiana are seeing similar shortages:

While the shortage is affecting business for local gun shops, Rupert says several police departments are getting desperate.
“Right now, we see a lot of smaller police departments that have resorted to paying retail prices for ammunition, because they cannot get it through their suppliers,” said Rupert.

In Bozeman, Montana, the cops are finding that there’s no one they can order ammo from, everyone is so out of stock.  And the manufacturers can’t even tell them when there will be more supplies.
Or Shelbyville, Tennessee, where they claim not to have an ammo shortage, but there are still massive delays in getting new shipments because of the nationwide gun-nut panic.

Alex Seitz-Wald at Salon says the NRA is to blame, and he’s not far from the truth.  Alex notes two particular peaks in gun and ammo sales.  First, after Obama’s election in 2008 (there was also a run on bullets in 2009 as, for whatever reason, gun nuts again feared massive imminent gun control), and second, after the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre this past December.
The NRA is in the business of selling guns, figuratively and literally, to the American people.  They’ve got a vested interest in keeping their paranoid membership, well, paranoid.  Paranoia helps keep membership up, and helps fuel gun and ammo sales.  And what’s good for Big Gun is good for the NRA.
It’s why the NRA has been warning gun nuts of a coming Zombie Apocalypse for a while now.  Here’s NRA chief Wayne LaPierre in a recent op ed, explaining why private citizens need to stockpile guns and ammo:

Meanwhile, President Obama is leading this country to financial ruin, borrowing over a trillion dollars a year for phony “stimulus” spending and other payoffs for his political cronies. Nobody knows if or when the fiscal collapse will come, but if the country is broke, there likely won’t be enough money to pay for police protection. And the American people know it.
Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals. These are perils we are sure to face—not just maybe. It’s not paranoia to buy a gun. It’s survival. It’s responsible behavior, and it’s time we encourage law-abiding Americans to do just that.

These people are crazy.
What’s the answer?  Jon Green wrote about it right after Sandy Hook – we ought to be taxing the hell out of bullets to make it prohibitively expensive for any American to have more than what is needed for self-defense.  Period.