HOUMA, Louisiana — In 15 years of selling guns and ammunition, he’s never seen anything like it. Wednesday afternoon, there were wide gaps between the boxes of ammunition for sale at the shop, formerly an auto-parts and gun store but now strictly a firearms business.
“That shelf is usually packed,” Prevost said. “If we don’t hide ammo, they’ll buy it all.”
Spurred by rampant rumors and fears that President Barack Obama, now six months into his term, may levy massive taxes on ammunition or add cumbersome new firearms restrictions, gun owners have been buying bullets in huge quantities, creating shortages nationwide.
“The American public just went bonkers,” Prevost said. “People are panicked.”
Workers at three other gun shops and sporting goods stores in the Houma said they face similar problems.
“People are buying whatever they can get their hands on, and there’s a shortage with the distributors,” said Bryan Butcher, owner of Tri-Parish Police Supply on La. 311. “They’re afraid they’re not going to be able to get it or it’s going to be three times the price.”
The shortages are affecting law-enforcement agencies also. Terrebonne Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois said his office has had trouble finding ammunition in bulk for deputies.
“We’re not out yet, but we will run out,” he said. Read more
Source: dailycomet.com
