Consumer Panic
When panick buying sets in,it covers the entire spectrum. Everybody has a .22. If you go lookin' for 9mm (or whatever) and there ain't any,just pick up some .22 LR while you're at it. That has happened a LOT lately. When people buy BRICKS instead of Boxes, and CASES instead of BRICKS, the supply chain can't handle it. 22LR is still available at Walmarts. You just have to be lucky to find it. I usually find some about 1 out of 10 tries.
Government Responsible
The Feds have trailers sitting in the lot with 52 pallets all stacked high with 22lr ammo that the federal government is buying. Government agents in blacked out SUV's were following ammo shipments to retailers and forcing them to be redirected to government holding facilities.
One theory is that the ammo is going from the Government into the Cartels for two purposes. One is of course to keep it out of the hands of ***** Americans seeking to protect themselves, and the other is to enable the ******* to kill us, create havoc and therefore give the ******** the pretext for more clamp downs against us.
A source that rubs elbows with high level people in the military and law enforcement with a connection on the Joint Chiefs of Staff (sounds like he is now retired) verified that the Government is buying up ammo that they had no use for, such as the 22LR, and just destroying it to keep it off the shelves. He also confirmed that several of the officers he knows are being interviewed by the administration with a lie detector and being told that they wont fit into the future direction of the military and being forced to leave. This is just more confirmation to what is going on.