Everybody FREAKED and bought everything post Sandyhook. Prices on AR's doubled; people were selling them at 300% value private party.
There was no ammo anywhere for the longest. And when it came back in stock you were restricted on how much you could buy. Things are back to normal now of course. But after Sandyhook the thought was gun control was coming, so Georgians bought everything. And the private party shenanigans drove prices to obscene levels. Like if you could guy a bucket of bullets at the store for $100, it'd be easy to sell it on the internet for $200 or more. So people were doing that. That kept the ammo scarcity going for longer than it needed to.