I suspect that the recent election has a little to do with it. But also, more and more law enforcement agencies are facing massive cutbacks in their budgets, resulting in there not being an officer to come help when you need it. For example, last year one county in Oregon lost so much money that the sheriff reported that his deputies could no longer patrol, and would only respond to MAJOR crimes. He advised everyone in his county to get a gun, and was passing out CCW's like mad. In such an environment, I suspect that more and more folks are buying guns and lots of ammo...

Circa 1992: I was a reserve deputy (Fully Commissioned) in small town Oklahoma. All paid deputies but one got off shift at 2100. Dispatch phone (Before small town 911) was forwarded to Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
If a call came in, OHP phoned the "duty" deputy at his home and he was ON HIS OWN. We all monitored the radio, and he would call an unofficial "Phone Tree" (like the military call out roster) to wake a few up to monitor the radio. if someone was already awake, they would radio for him to pick them up and ride along for free.

All that said, the local sheriff told citizens that it would take at least one hour for someone to respond to any call. We often as not, knew who we were going to see and would call to see if that person had shot the bad guy already. If so we would call for an ambulance also.

Believe it or not crime really did not increase. Before budget cut, the baddies worried they MIGHT get popped. After, It was a given Farmer Brown's widow was sleeping with John Browning and the baddie's odds of survival weren't great.

Really wasn't fun going solo on a call 70 miles into the country at 0300 though.

Right now, I'm outside the US and my weapons are in storage, but in college I had what I considered a reasonable amount of ammo on hand. I kept 500-1000 rounds of .22 for my pistol. When I went out plinking I generally shot a couple hundred rounds, especially if I was taking some one shooting (great date by the way). For my 9mm CCW, I had 100-150 rounds. I mostly shot it for familiarization, say 50 rounds a session at the range, since I could pour rounds through the .22 to practice marksmanship and 9mm is more expensive. For the single shot shotgun I kept around 50 rounds of buck and bird shot, plus a 10-20 slug rounds. Its hard to go through a lot of ammo with a single shot weapon, and I didn't see a need for anymore then that.

When I get back to the US I'll probably end up with about the same amount of ammo. If I pick up a semi-auto rifle, I'll probably keep about 500 rounds on hand for it as well. I generally go off of how much ammo I shoot at the range in a single session and keep about three times that amount on hand fluctuating up to five. For something hard to find, I'd probably buy all I could get. For something as ubiquitous as 9mm or 12 gauge, I wouldn't worry about how much I had nearly as much as long as I had "some". I was also in college, didn't have a great place to store it and didn't have a lot of cash. The nice thing about .22 was 1000 rounds was $20.

I think I've still got 1500+ rounds for my SKS. Hopefully that will last till the roller coaster swings the other way.
It sure isn't enough if I have to retake the country though.

"How much ammo is a reasonable quantity to have on hand?"

I don't know how much is 'enough', but I asked a gentleman I know if he keeps much ammo around, and his response was, "My weapons will melt down before I run out of ammo".

He has quite a few weapons of the projectile-discharging type.

Sue

Investing in and learning how to use reloading equipment is another approach to consider.

Yep, I hope to get into that soon.

Seems like an enjoyable hobby too!

This is the best site that I have found for locating quickly dwindling supplies of ammo at a good price.

http://www.gun-deals.com/ammo.php

I keep several thousand rounds for each caliber of rifle that I have, .223, 308, 7.62 x 39 and a thousand rounds of ammo for my handguns of each caliber.

I have just ordered a bunch of 223 and 45 auto.

I don't know that I am expecting a ban, but I had extra cash around and thought that this was a better investment than the stock market right now .

Those components are also going up in price and scarcity. (there are lots of reloaders out there already)

How much ammo should you have?

Enough to last the rest of your life because you can't be sure ammo sales to non-military won't be banned. Like not waiting until your gas gage reads Empty before refueling, don't shoot up all your ammo. Keep a reserve.

Please do plan to practice once in awhile.

To me, it seems best to wait a while for things to simmer down. Right now, gun dealers are taking advantage of uncertainty to pump up sales. In a few months gun dealers will be hurting for sales after the wave has passed. Many that were going to buy will have over-indulged. Who will want to buy another gun or case of ammo after already having splurged in November? Suppliers that are increasing production will get everything to stores in time to see that nobody wants to buy. There will be many many sales.