Well wait, what about training? You have to get educated before you can get your drivers license. Shouldn't we do the same for firearms? Brace yourselves. I agree. Yes. You should get training. Before you freak out thinking I've traded my flat top for a hippy headband, let me explain. In this circumstance, I want exactly what you get for cars: a full semester of education in every high school in the US. That's right. Drop the "gun free zone" BS and really get on board with safety and education. Every 17 year old gets 3 months of class room education on safe handling, operation, and storage. If they want to go further, hands on instruction will be required, followed by written and applied skills testing. Then you can renew every four years, and everyone else can shut up about it. And since the DMV proved that a government agency will never work as well as a private agency (The new MVC), a nationally recognized firearms training and safety organization will run the training and license renewal for this new system. I'll give you three guesses which organization I'm talking about, and here's a clue: they don't have the words "Moms," "Brady," or "Mayors" in their name!
    Let's take the cars analogy all the way. Every car in the country has a muffler. It cuts down on unnecessary noise pollution. Too much noise damages your hearing, so it's a safety issue. Right? Good. Sound suppressors can go on every firearm for the same reason. No more NFA transfers, no more $200 tax stamp for suppressors. It only makes sense.
    The FBI reports that in the US there are approximately 80-100 million existing firearms owners and 7 million new firearms owners in the last year. That's 7 million people who never owned a firearm before and now are learning the ropes. If you are one of them, I strongly encourage you to get properly educated by a professional instructor in the safe storage and use of your firearm.
    So let's cut the nonsense. I know guns and cars aren't the same. I know the issues aren't the same. But I believe that there is truly one solution: Education!

Ammunition supplies at stores are finally starting to normalize. That's good news, but prices are still inflated.
So what have we learned from the recent shortage?
Conventional knowledge pretty much went out the window as soon as supply started to dry up and shelves went bare. Most of the guys I know had argued in favor of only keeping firearms chambered for NATO calibers. It seems that the 9 mm, 45 ACP, 5.56/2.23, 7.62 x 51/.308, and 12 gauge were the first things to disappear. (This was not my personal philosophy, and I was glad to see .40 S&W, 7.62x54R, and 7.62x39 price and availability fluctuate very little in comparison.) The biggest surprise probably came when the .22 LR vanished from shelves. How many articles were written or conversations had that the .22 would be in limitless supply because it is the most common target, plinking, and recreational round available? Conventional wisdom told us there was no possible way we would ever have a shortage of .22. Boy oh boy, were we wrong! I'm not even going get into prices on some of the other rounds but we saw a $17 box of .22 long rifle go all the way up to $120 in the course of three short months, thanks in no small part to shady dealers like Cheaper Than Dirt and unscrupulous "ammo scalpers" who looked to make a quick buck. (CTD will never see another penny of my money!)
We can get into several theories as to why supply and demand shifted the way it did or why the supply dried up so fast but the bottom line is if you hadn't stocked up on ammo prior to this rush you're feeling the shortage more than anybody else. I'm curious to hear from any new marksman out there who recently started purchasing firearms and ammunition how they've budgeted for not only the price of the firearm but also the over inflated price of the ammunition. Unfortunately, I suspect most new folks coming into the firearms culture have no idea they're being overcharged.
The short lesson is this: The Mosin and SKS continued to eat well, but the AR and Ruger 10/22 ate very lean. Be careful with "Caliber Consolidation", because you might be surprised with what disappears when times get tight. And if you haven't started backing up your ammo supply, maybe you need to rethink some purchases.

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