A shortage of guns and ammunition in the US has spread to Australian shores, causing problems for farmers, security contractors and sporting shooters across the country.
Domestic importers say the shortage is being driven by the current gun debate in America.
The managing director of Nioa, Australia's biggest wholesaler of firearms and ammunition, says the situation reached crisis point at the end of last year.
"The current situation came about immediately after the last US election where Barack Obama was re-elected," managing director Robert Nioa said.
"The American shooting population felt that in his second term he would be likely to introduce more restrictions on firearms and ammunition and they all have started buying up in expectation of those changes."
Mr Nioa says the company has been forced to wait up to three years for some of its American stock to arrive, leaving customers to make do with existing products.
"It's meant increased lead times for customers that are waiting up to a year, sometimes two years, for firearms or specific ammunition, and it's meant that our stockpiles that we had previously are being diminished so we don't have much of a buffer stock," he said.
"Some firearms have been delayed as much as three years for getting deliveries, but we're starting to see that delivery time come back down to the six months to 12-month timeframe now.
"The big delays have been in centre-fire ammunition that farmers might use and also projectiles and ammunition components that [a] target shooter might use for competing in Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games-style events."
Credit to Australian Broadcasting Corporation News
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