Posted March 16, 2020 / by Newbury
As many people are starting to notice, panic buying has become rampant across all industries including the firearms industry. Over the past few days, we as an industry have seen a run on guns and ammo across the country. This panic buying directly correlates to the recent out break of the COVID-19 virus (a.k.a. The Coronavirus), a respiratory virus that originated in China. Despite the current low mortality rate, people all over the country try are collectively spending millions on everything from canned goods, toilet paper, disinfectant, and now firearms and ammunition.
Due to the sharp uptick in demand, we have received multiple emails from all our distributors telling us that allocations and price increases are coming. In other words, because people are buying everything they can the prices on all the most popular guns, ammo calibers, and accessories are going up. In the past 72 hours, we have noticed the price of 9x19mm and 5.56×45 have increased by $50-100 per case of 1000.
Another downside to all of this is inventory and shipping times. With everyone ordering whatever they can, the increases order volumes is causing a strain on the distributors and companies like ourselves. This in turn is causing shipping times to increase so that each order can be processed appropriately. Due to some of the harder to ship items we sell, we normally say shipping will take anywhere between 4-10 days (average is about 5 days). Due to the unprecedented volume of orders, we will be extending that window to 5-14 days. We are also expecting out of stock items to take longer to be restocked.
Here is a list of some of things that we are already seeing sold out and/or have increased in price online and in stores.
Stop panic buying everything you can get your hands on. Realistically that won’t happen though, which will cause price increases and supply shortages just like what we saw back in 2013 and through 2016. If everyone does not calm down then these shortages and price increases are going to be felt for awhile (possibly years). The current path we are on as an industry will also make it more difficult for new individuals to join the firearms community. Affordable guns and ammo is how many people start off before they get “bit by the bug” and start moving forward towards higher quality firearms or start collecting.
None of this bodes well for our community. Don’t be shocked if you start seeing ammo listed on Armslist for 100% more than what it was bought for. Don’t be shocked to see some stores making you buy a firearm to be able buy ammo. And definitely don’t be shocked when you finally go to buy that AR you’ve been saving up for and the price has gone up by a significant amount. Hopefully this all dies off soon and we can get back to normal prices.
