Ammo sales spike over fears from Coronavirus

One ammo company says ammo sales have spiked nearly 70% due to fears of the coronavirus. We spoke with Eli Bruton of Liberty Tree Guns in Carthage to see if they have experienced an increase in their sales.

“I’ve seen almost all of the common calibers (9mm, .223, .556) selling out at distributors. The word that we’re getting is it’s likely going to dry up for awhile,” says Bruton. “The supply chain and everything that is currently already been manufactured is going to be gone in the next 24 to 48 and it’ll be a matter of if and when it can be manufactured to meet demand. I’ve seen this happen before and I would anticipate looking at probably several weeks of unavailability of calibers.”

This article by Fox Business says Ammo.com is reporting that in the 11 days from February 23, when news of the coronavirus reached high levels of interest in the U.S., until March 4, they saw a 68% increase in transactions and a 45 percent increase in conversation rates compared to the 11 days before.

“I see how it seems odd to the casual onlooker but really any uncertainty makes a lot of sense if you think about it. We see people getting into fights and physical altercations over holiday sales let alone an actual shortage so if we had even enough of a pandemic where people were in desperate need of supplies and things could get a little bit violent and turn for the worst,” adds Bruton. “I don’t think they are buying the ammo because of the virus, they’re buying ammo because of the potential or a little bit of unrest.”

Bruton says they do still have inventory on their shelves but says what they have now and in the pipeline on the way are will likely be all that you see for a few weeks.