While in school, I took a class comparing Canadian and American law. The tutorial featured a webconference with a companion class in British Colombia, so we actually interacted with the Canadian students. The professor alternated his presence between the two classes. On the first day of class, the professor asked everyone what it meant to be a Canadian or an American (as the case may be). The American students hit on the themes you’d expect . . .
Freedom, liberty, rights, choices, justice…like that. The Canadian students hit on similar themes, but with the addition of a very distinct one: “not American.” Alas, that last bit has come to haunt Canada’s gun owners – their freedoms are more restricted than ours, and worse, it seems that the increased American demand for all things related to firearms in recent years is drying up supplies in , too.
American gun owners who have been hoarding ammunition are creating shortages in parts of Nova Scotia.
“They’re (distributors) saying that the rifle ammo is going to get worse this year instead of better,” said David MacKay, of MacKay’s Wild Outdoors Adventures on Willow Street.
“It wasn’t too bad last year but by mid-fall, like mid-season, it was getting hard to get even the common calibres,” he said.
MacKay said the shortages have been getting worse over the past year-and-a-half following school shootings in the U.S. that prompted fears that the Obama government was going to initiate a card system similar to Canada that gun owners would require when purchasing ammunition.
“Ever since, the Americans have been stockpiling to beat the band,” he said, adding that the Canadian gun market does not produce enough demand to make it a strong player for purchasing ammunition….
Inquiries about purchasing .22 caliber shells and other ammo at the Canadian Tire and Walmart stores in Truro proved fruitless, with none available at either location.
The same situation applies to both New Glasgow and Amherst, based on the number of customers who have been coming to MacKay’s shop of late from those areas.
“Right now it’s just hit and miss,” he said, of his ability to acquire some ammo such as .22 shells and for some other higher calibre rifles.
“I ordered 220,000 rounds one morning and I got 50(000), from them. That was one company, the other two I never got nothing from them yet,” he said.
Of the 50,000 rounds of .22 shells that came in less that two weeks ago, MacKay said he has less than half remaining.
“Under normal conditions you wouldn’t see it going out of here that fast, it’s just that nobody’s got anything, right.”
Now if you’re a typical American like me, I know you’re thinking two things upon reading that excerpt:
(1) Wait a minute, this guy has 25,000 rounds of .22LR available for sale? Right now??!?
(2) You can buy ammo in tire shops in Canada?
On the first point: forget it. By the time you drove the truck all the way to Truro, Nova Scotia, the rest of it would probably be gone anyway, so just chill.
As for the second: yes, apparently Canadian Tire is a big-box retailer that sells lots of stuff.
While I’ve noticed that it isn’t exactly all sunshine and strawberries when it comes to retail ammunition supplies in our neck of the woods either, availability is much better than it was a year ago. So if you’ll be engaging in the sports this weekend, enjoy yourself, but think of our friends to the north, too.