BOISE, Idaho - March 11, 2009 - Less than 10 days ago, I went to buy my wife a handgun from a large national sporting goods retail outlet near Boise. They have 3 very large sets of shelves that are normally stacked high with every imaginable type of ammo, but on this day they had maybe 2% of their normal stock and 0, yes ZERO .38 cal. When I asked the salesman about it he said that they have not been able to get much and when they do it sells out within a few days.

I decided to check around, because I am so concerned about what is unfolding in our country. Out of 5 major outlets I was able to obtain 2 boxes of .40 cal. and 1 box of .38 cal., for a total of 250 rounds. The story from each salesman was the same; there is none available and they don't know when they will receive more.

At one location I got talking with the clerk and he told me that his brother works for Remington and has run their ammo making machines for over 10 years; in the past few years they have run 12 hours a day 7 days a week. Two weeks after our last elections their management informed them that they were to cut back to 2 1/2 days a week and only run 8 hours a day. He said they had 50 semi-truck trailers waiting to be loaded but that they could not fill them.

A small family-owned gun store I have dealt with for the last several years had quite a bit available but I was told again that they have scoured the entire area and bought everything they could find to resell, and they thought what they had would be gone by the next day. After talking more with the owner he told me that last Wednesday and Thursday his staff spent the entire time calling every gun store in Oregon, Idaho and Washington, and could not locate anything more than a few boxes here and there. While I was in the store he took off to drive all the way to Montana to get what was available there in a few small towns; that is at least a 16-hour round trip drive.

Apparently, over thirty people were waiting for an ammo shipment in Mountain Home, Idaho, and when the semi finally arrived it had only 12 boxes of pistol ammo aboard, and they were told not to expect anymore in the near future.

I haven't heard this situation mentioned anywhere, and I would never have discovered it if I hadn't gone to purchase a gun.

Something very strange is happening out here. I can only hope that it is a local phenomenon, but I fear that it is of much larger scope. Please inform your listeners so that they can find out for themselves.

From an undisclosed but reliable source. I'd like to know who told Remington to cut back on production.