Of Shortages: Ammunition and Brains

Some of you, doubtless, have noted a dearth of .22LR ammunition.
It isn't just your imagination.

For dissemination far and wide:

The genius jacktards of the Greater Gun Conglomerate Community have independently and individually decided, some months back into the Great Ammo Debacle Part II, to simply cease outright and for unspecified future notice, all production of .22 rimfire ammunition.

Some observations, by the numbers:

1) Yes, it's their ball, and their game, but it was still asinine, stupid, shortsighted, and every other Dictionary of Synonyms reference for having their heads firmly clenched somewhere north of their diaphragm from an entry point south of the pelvic girdle.

2) It allowed them to focus on fulfilling with much greater rapidity the demand for centerfire ammunition of all types, where their own mark-ups are suitably higher per pound of product.

3) It totally overlooks the marketplace which, rightly or wrongly, uses the availability/dearth of .22LR as a keynote species of scarcity, concluding that if bread/milk/eggs/unleaded gas/.22LR is in short supply, even if 9mm is available by case lots, the zombies must nevertheless be right up the road shuffling hereward as we speak.

4) The predictable result of 1, 2, and 3 above being people with a 20-year supply of .22LR flinging themselves on any sighting of .22LR sufficient to achieve their goal of a 30-year supply of same, with all the alacrity of a DSC/Navy Cross candidate hurling himself on a hand grenade to save his buddies, or any past or current mayor of Washington D.C. hurling himself on a bag of crack rocks.

5) The utter yet predictable oblivion of The Powers That Be in the Greater Gun Conglomerate Community to the market forces resulting from 1, 2, 3, and 4 being that .22LR will continue in short supply until the manufacturers either catch up with demand on everything else (with currently only 3 years' backorders instead of the recently reported 10 years' worth), or decide that they are, in fact, creating and exacerbating this problem themselves, which epiphany will be notable by the sounds of a loud series of THWUNK-like sounds from somewhere behind the production panjandrums of the folks who run Federal, Remington, Winchester, CCI/Speer, etc., et al, and a notable pinkening of their complexions from increased oxygenation to their cranial spaces.

As such a remarkable confluence of them pulling their collective heads out simultaneously has never been observed before in the wild, I wouldn't expect to sight such Black Swan-like events anytime in the foreseeable future.

YMMV.