Methinks he doth protest too much
I put a smiley face...
It's not just ammo, it's guns, optics, etc. Somewhere on the net someone convinced someone else that there was/is a conspiracy to keep Joe blow shooter from being able to get ammo, limiting his 2A rights.
No kidding, I bet I field this call 30-50 times a day. Folks just don't seem to grasp that when demand tripples, you can't just turn a dial to speed up the manufacturing process. You can't build a new factory, and have it staffed, and producing in 1 month.
Would it be a wise business decision to spend millions to build a factory, staff it, etc for a temporary market bubble? Maybe it's not temporary. If its not temporary then yes it makes sense. If it is temporary then no it absolutely does not. These are all things to consider before thinking "x company is stockpiling, so I can't shoot". Sitting of inventory = lost revenue. Most companies are not striving to lose as much revenue as possible.
Where the conspiracy does get some traction is reloading components. The markup is less on components than manufactured ammo. The machines that made primers for sale to reloadeders, not makes primers that go into ammo.
We have become a microwave society. We are used to getting it "Now"
The microwave has broke, and it will take it a year or so to catch up with the meals in line to be warmed up.
"Gun guys" as a group are gawd awful at understanding an Econ 101 supply & demand curve...
It's not just gun guys. An incredible number of people think manufactured goods grow on trees powered by sunshine, water, and air, or are dug out of the ground like crude oil...things which are in natural abundance. Then, when scarcity occurs and "nature's bounty" bubbling from the Earth is interrupted, it must be the malevolent action of some human trying to "corner" the market, either shutting down production or hiding product so they can gouge people.
Crude oil, Gibson guitars, many things have trained peoples' minds this way.
Many people have no idea how hard it is to staff up a manufacturing plant with people, paid the price the consumer is willing to pay, and keep it running, with absenteeism running what it does today, FMLA (thanks Bill Clinton) and the general attitude of people. The wages the consumer is willing to pay do not generate a large pool of applicants who can pass a background check, _and_ drug test _and_ are willing to show up every day (you need all 3).
Example: couple years back, a manufacturing plant in Lafayette (OK let's call it Subaru) needed to hire 300 additional assembly line workers to support volume growth for introduction of the 2020 Outback model. In the time it took to hire those 300 people, 600 other employees quit. They had to hire 900 people, to net 300. And most applicants will not even show up for the entire orientation class.
Anyway, as unpleasant as this current situation is, sometimes people need reminding that most things don't grow on trees.