CraigC
Sixgun Nut
Typically, what people refer to as "price gouging" is what prevents human behavior-induced shortages. I think it has more to do with those #$%^&*( standing in line at Walmart at 6am and buying every box. I don't think the hoarders are buying it at $50-$80 a brick.Many things drove prices up, but none had anything to do with ammo makers simply not being able to supply the demand. Right, wrong, or indifferent, the people buying ammo at inflated prices kept the prices inflated. It's a waste of energy being mad at human behavior. It won't change, hasn't since the dawn of man.
I always go back to 2004, when I worked for a utility in Florida and we had five or six hurricanes hit in a matter of weeks. The first two were the worst and we had over 20miles of aerial plant on the ground. Massive power outages and storm damage everywhere. The supply of gasoline never wavered but the plethora of idiots filling every container they had, along with filling up their cars every day, only to have the containers sit in their garage or worse still, to burn it up driving around gawking at the carnage, produced not only a shortage where the emergency and utility workers could not get fuel but they also caused massive traffic problems. Of course, the whining liberals who do not understand economics, along with the ignorance of the common voter, resulted in laws against "price gouging". Just as John Stossel has always maintained, "price gouging" would have thwarted most of the hoarding. Sure, it would have cost a lot more per gallon but more people would have only got what they needed. Rather than thousands hoarding more than they ever would.