Ammo shortage making it harder to form militias: ‘It’s a very expensive sport’

Efforts to form militias are being hampered by the firearm ammo crisis gripping America.

"If you don't own guns or particularly care about guns, you probably had no idea that the United States is currently in the throes of the Great Ammunition Shortage of 2021. But in the gun world, it's all anyone can talk about," Tess Owen reported for Vice News on Monday.

"A perfect storm of factors led to the national ammo drought, which is forecast to drag out for at least another year," Owen explained. "Americans began buying guns at a record pace in 2020 after COVID-19 hit the U.S. Between March and September 2020, gun sales jumped by 91 percent over the same period the previous year. And the approximately 15.1 million new guns needed ammo. But there were manufacturing issues. International shipments of materials used in ammunition were delayed amid restrictions. Ammo and firearm manufacturers were required to temporarily halt operations in certain states where they weren't deemed essential business."

"All the while, demand kept climbing. National unrest after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis cop (and conspiracy theories about that unrest coming into the suburbs) created another run on guns and ammo. And when Joe Biden won the presidential election and vowed to pursue gun control, demand surged again," the report noted.

The shortage is making it harder for militia groups to organize.

"The ammunition shortage has also posed a bit of an obstacle for militia organizing. VICE News spoke with Reddit user Tactischink, 21, about his efforts to form a militia in his home state of Minnesota," Owen reported. "He says that even if some of his friends were open to the idea of forming a militia, the cost of doing so was prohibitive. "They're like, OK, that does sound kind of badass, but it's a lot of money," Tactischink said. 'There's a huge ammo shortage, so ammo is very, very expensive. I mean, we're talking a dollar a round. If you want to buy a thousand rounds, you're looking at a thousand dollars, which is a ton of money for people that are younger like myself.'"

"It's a very expensive sport to get into," he added.