BIt of a chicken and egg situation here. Scalpers sweep the shelves clear. Rest of us have to buy from scalpers? Somehow we need to break teh cycle. IMO, the best way to do that is for retailers to put limits on purchases, or charge something more than the "old prices" for a while, and the rest of us have to stop buying from the scalpers at their inflated pricing.
Also, when the rest of us have the opportunity to purchase at a normal price, resit the tempation to buy more than you reasonably need. Don't try to get a years (or more) worth of .22LR in your "stash"! I know that's challenging, as I want to build upp a backlog too. Especially since this "shortage" has been so long...
You don't have to buy from scalpers. I have purchased in the neighborhood of 3 - 4 thousand rounds since all this started. I'm not a panic buyer and I don't hoard it. I enjoy shooting my .22LR and I shoot what I buy. All my purchases have been made from big box retailers like Walmart or Cabella's, or occasionally online, like Midwest. I've never bought from scalpers. I've never paid scalper prices.
Retailers ARE limiting purchases. It's not helping very much. Market behavior is mostly market driven. If prices are low and demand is high, people will buy. You're not going to convince them otherwise. People want what they want. If retailers impose artificial limits on supply, which they already do, they are only perpetuating the high demand, not easing it. And, if they keep their prices "reasonable" while imposing those purchase limits, the cycle will never end.
One behavior that isn't market driven is people's sense of morality. We think that if businesses raise their prices in the middle of a shortage, they are acting immorally. Retailers in this market understand this ethos and don't want to **** off their customers. So they're keeping the prices "reasonable". And, because of the demand at that price level, they have to impose purchase limits.
If there is anything that consumers can do to stop this never-ending cycle, is to give retailers the okie-dokie to raise their prices to meet demand. If all the traditional retail outlets would raise the price to meet demand, like a natural market tends to do, there would be no incentive for "scalpers" to flip ammo. The demand would naturally decrease. As product is seen on the shelves, albeit at a higher price, the panic buying would ease. As the supply increases and the demand decreases, the prices would drop. Since so many people have panic bought hoards of ammo,