Strategic Ammo Reserve

Just over a week ago, on January 31st, ammunition sellers across the country were suddenly flooded with orders. Some sites went dark from the massive amount of traffic and others were quickly going out of stock on popular calibers. If you live in California you already know the story, but the rest of the country might not know the details or the lesson we can all learn from it...

It will be no shocker to anyone but California isn’t a very gun friendly state. In fact, they are so anti-2A that you actually have to go through a background check not just for firearms, but also for ammunition. Kiss my ass Constitution!

Yep real Soviet Union kind of stuff. (They don’t call it ‘Kalifornia’ for nothing!)

Californian's aren't even supposed to go out of state to buy ammo and "import" it back in without going through the background check or paying the fees and taxes. Taxes? Yep they currently have an 11% tax on ammunition with another 11% being added in July on top of already high sales taxes and whatever fees the local FFL chooses to charge. So for sake of argument, let’s just round it to a 30% surcharge on ammunition for Californians.

Yikes! 

All of that changed on Jan 31st. In a nutshell, a pro-2A judge, Justice Roger Benitez, put a permanent injunction on the ammo background law making it unenforceable.  What that meant in practical terms is that Californians could get ammo shipped directly to their homes again… like (nearly all) of the rest of the country. 

So, the result was what you would have expected - millions of California gun owners were placing ammo orders online as fast as they could so they could get some shipped directly to their homes and skip the unconstitutional background check and massive levies placed on ammunition.

Everyone knew the window would be short.

This huge stone ker-plunking in the pond of ammo availability is what caused the mad rush and flash shortages the last week and a half… 

But not at AmmoSquared HQ. 

Sure, our California customers were doing the same thing, however there was one significant difference: they just had to log in and hit “Ship It”. They didn’t have to search online for in-stock ammo, fight the hordes, run up credit cards or break into savings. 

Nope, they didn’t have to do that because our customers had ammo already sitting here in Idaho just waiting to be called home. 

In a way, our Californian customers had their own “Personal Strategic Ammo Reserve” just sitting here waiting for that glorious injunction from Justice Roger Benitez.

It came in a flash and it was over just as fast because as of the 5th of February, the 9th Circuit Court put a “stay” on that injunction shutting down California Ammo Freedom Week… for now.    

Personal Strategic Ammo Reserve

I used California as an example because it is fresh in my mind and a great example where having a stockpile of ammo on tap was beneficial. Of course there have been other times in our eight year history that we’ve seen a rush of “withdrawls”. The largest and most obvious was during the COVID ammo shortage.

Customers that were accumulating ammunition before the dark days of the COVID induced shortage were sitting pretty well when that storm unexpectedly rolled in. So well in fact, that when they got ammo in the mail their friends were a bit jealous... then those friends signed up as well. We actually had to put in a waiting list because of literally thousands of new customers that signed up in July and August 2020!

The problem for the friends of our customers was they were trying to catch a train that had already left the station. They were late and didn't have ammo already stockpiled with us, so they had to start building up once ammo became available once again. Many of our current customers are folks that signed up during that time. They learned a lesson and realized they wanted to be prepared for the NEXT ammo shortage. Smart.

The best time to prepare for a storm is BEFORE the storm rolls in.

Oh, speaking of storms...

Other times our service proved extra valuable were during times of regional flooding in the Midwest and hurricanes in Texas and Florida. Basically anytime there is damage to someone's personal ammo supply or a disruption to the normal flow of ammunition in the country. Our customers can just click “Ship” and they’ll get their accumulated ammo in just a few days. No hassle or new outlays of cash needed.

It really is like having a Personal Strategic Ammo Reserve. 

What is a “Strategic Reserve”?  

Well, we all know about our Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) right? It was in the news a lot last year. It consists of storage for up to 714 Million barrels of oil, for emergencies. Oil is pretty important wouldn’t you say? It keeps our country moving and our planes flying. It makes sense to have a huge supply as a backup, just in case we need it. 

As a country, we also have Strategic National Stockpiles of other things such as food, medicine, rare earth minerals, industrial metals and until recently, even helium. We have stockpiles of large munitions and small arms ammunition (when we’re not giving it away to other countries) so we can fight a war or two if necessary.

All this to say that it makes good logistical sense to stockpile some things for when you might need them. It is even better to have a plan for rotating through your stored reserves so they aren’t rotting away or going bad when you finally do need them.

When I say AmmoSquared acted like a “Personal Strategic Ammo Reserve” for Californians last week, we really did. Our customers set up their accounts to suit their needs and budgets months and even years ahead of time… a little bit of ammo building up over time in such a way that it wasn’t even missed.

Ammo quietly building up in the background until the day it was needed arrived.

For Californians, that day was January 31st. For other folks around the country it might be after a flood, a fire, or a hurricane. Or it could be after store shelves run dry during the next election season ammo shortage.

The point of a Strategic Reserve is that you don’t know exactly WHEN you’ll need it. You just know you’ll need it someday so you stockpile it for the future. When that day comes, we’ll be ready… just like we were for our California customers last week.

AmmoSquared Inc. is revolutionizing the way you purchase and manage your ammunition stockpile. With us, you'll have the flexibility to buy ammo a little bit at a time, over time with no preset budget. Our secure (free!) climate controlled storage ensures your ammunition is safe and available when you need it, while our wide selection of caliber options caters to just about every shooter's needs. Invest in future ammo security with AmmoSquared. Start your personal ammo reserve today so it's there when you need it most!