A lot of guys here saying that the ammo market as it is now is capitalism, and that's mostly true, but there are aspects of it that make it incomplete. Capitalism is unfettered voluntary exchange of private goods and services, meaning someone owns them, and decides what happens to them. The ammo manufacturers are not unfettered in how they are able to produce their products. They have hundreds of government edicts they must follow for the "privilege" of manufacturing, selling, and distributing ammo and components.
What we are seeing now is an authentic scarcity brought on by panic buying (a very real aspect of the free market in the best of times), authentic scarcity brought on by higher demand for ammo due to a greater number of firearms owners and users, authentic scarcity brought on by Remington's ammunition production facilities having to largely fold due to them not doing typical maintenance and replacement of worn out equipment, artificial scarcity due to high barriers of entry into the production side due to government regulation of accellerants, explosives, and lead, artificial scarcity in the work force due to Covid regulations and government subsidies (handouts so that people don't seek employment), and most significantly, artificial scarcity because, due to several obvious and some unclear factors, no significant investment is being made to increase production of ammo and primers, even though all the market signals are in place to do so. This last is where we seem to argue back and forth, with some contending that it is too high a barrier for not enough reward, particularly given the time investment involved.
I assert that, given the real price of ammo and components, as shown on auction sites like Gunbroker, there is some artificial pressure being applied to the big manufacturers to discourage them from permanently increasing ammunition supplies in the US by investing in new manufacturing capability, even though all the ingredients exist in the market already for them to turn larger profits by increasing production. The increased demand isn't going away any time soon.
The only reason I can imagine that they wouldn't want to increase production is they think demand will fall off sharply when the Baby Boomers die off, and their guns and ammo are distributed through the market.
