There is no conspiracy...it's just that many gun owners in the country are panicky sheep who run whichever way the wind blows.

.22 ammo is cheap enough that even a poor man can hoard it.

Next you have to throw in the "speculators" who will spend a bunch of money thinking they'll be able to flip it all for a profit forever...these people are related to the same speculators who lost their collective butts in the real estate bubble recently.

Next you have new gun owners who just want something to shoot...sucks to be them.

You also have normal shooters who can't get the stuff they would have been shooting anyway without all this commotion.

It'll all blow over after a while.

Years from now when the hoarders start passing away their kids are going go be going through their belongings and wondering "what they heck were they doing with all this .22 ammo?"

I've been loading .44 and .41 mag all week...I'll keep shooting what I want...one of the benefits of being a reloader.