 |
|
|
WICD - Search Results
The following is an archived video story. The text content of that video story is available below
for reference. The original video has been deleted and is no longer available.
Ammo Buying Frenzy Affecting Law Enforcement Agencies
A police officer's firearm isn't very useful without ammunition, but with a national buying frenzy underway for guns and ammunition, some police departments are deciding it's time to stock up while they still can.
Police departments usually purchase their ammunition through state contracts with private suppliers. Those contracts keep prices at a certain level for a specified amount of time. Typically, the Christian County Sheriff's Department purchases a year's worth of ammunition at one time, but the state contract ended a couple of days ago, so the department decided to double its order.
Christian County Sheriff Bruce Kettelkamp needs his officers to be able to keep their magazines full.
"We recently, within the last week, have ordered at least two years' supply of ammunition, because the state bid just expired just a couple days ago, and we wanted to get the ammo at that price," Kettelkamp said. "We know that price is going to be going up drastically."
That's no easy task when facing a tight budget situation.
"It's going to be tough," Kettelkamp said. "We're going to have to pinch our pennies, and we're gonna have to do without some things to purchase the ammunition."
Ordinary citizens are running into the same thing, finding empty holes on shelves at places like JMA Pawn in Taylorville.
"Crazy, we've been selling out of just about everything we have in stock," owner Josh Assad said. "We've got a little bit of handgun ammo left, a little bit of rifle ammo left, but it's flying off the shelves."
The demand is keeping shelves bare.
"Pretty surprising," Assad said. "And the lack of inventory of available, is what's more surprising."
That has a fairly straightforward effect on prices.
"It drives them up, supply and demand," Assad said. "Everything's gone up at least 30 to 50 percent, across the board."
Kettelkamp understands what's behind the ammo frenzy.
"The public, I believe, is in a mode right now that they feel that guns are going to be banned, and they're trying to get as much ammunition as possible," Kettelkamp said. "I do not blame them for doing that, because that's the way it looks like it's gonna happen, but that is making it a little harder on law enforcement."
We reached out to the Taylorville Police Department as well. According to Chief Dave Herpstreith, his department also placed its annual ammunition order early. But that has more to do with their fiscal year, which ends later than many agencies'. He said orders placed late in the year tend to arrive slowly, leaving them short for training exercises.
Kettelkamp echoed that concern about longer shipping times, should his orders take, say, three to six months to arrive.
Firearms are also in historically high demand. Assad said in the last 60 days, he's done around $150,000 worth of gun sales. That's more than he typically does in a year.
Ammo Buying Frenzy Affecting Law Enforcement Agencies
A police officer's firearm isn't very useful without ammunition, but with a national buying frenzy underway for guns and ammunition, some police departments are deciding it's time to stock up while they still can.
Police departments usually purchase their ammunition through state contracts with private suppliers. Those contracts keep prices at a certain level for a specified amount of time. Typically, the Christian County Sheriff's Department purchases a year's worth of ammunition at one time, but the state contract ended a couple of days ago, so the department decided to double its order.
Christian County Sheriff Bruce Kettelkamp needs his officers to be able to keep their magazines full.
"We recently, within the last week, have ordered at least two years' supply of ammunition, because the state bid just expired just a couple days ago, and we wanted to get the ammo at that price," Kettelkamp said. "We know that price is going to be going up drastically."
That's no easy task when facing a tight budget situation.
"It's going to be tough," Kettelkamp said. "We're going to have to pinch our pennies, and we're gonna have to do without some things to purchase the ammunition."
Ordinary citizens are running into the same thing, finding empty holes on shelves at places like JMA Pawn in Taylorville.
"Crazy, we've been selling out of just about everything we have in stock," owner Josh Assad said. "We've got a little bit of handgun ammo left, a little bit of rifle ammo left, but it's flying off the shelves."
The demand is keeping shelves bare.
"Pretty surprising," Assad said. "And the lack of inventory of available, is what's more surprising."
That has a fairly straightforward effect on prices.
"It drives them up, supply and demand," Assad said. "Everything's gone up at least 30 to 50 percent, across the board."
Kettelkamp understands what's behind the ammo frenzy.
"The public, I believe, is in a mode right now that they feel that guns are going to be banned, and they're trying to get as much ammunition as possible," Kettelkamp said. "I do not blame them for doing that, because that's the way it looks like it's gonna happen, but that is making it a little harder on law enforcement."
We reached out to the Taylorville Police Department as well. According to Chief Dave Herpstreith, his department also placed its annual ammunition order early. But that has more to do with their fiscal year, which ends later than many agencies'. He said orders placed late in the year tend to arrive slowly, leaving them short for training exercises.
Kettelkamp echoed that concern about longer shipping times, should his orders take, say, three to six months to arrive.
Firearms are also in historically high demand. Assad said in the last 60 days, he's done around $150,000 worth of gun sales. That's more than he typically does in a year.
