Peter Rene, adjunct politics professor at Texas Southern never thought he’d own a gun until last summer, when violent political rhetoric struck a fear in him that a gun helped quell. He also never thought that he would be lining up at Academy Sports and Outdoor before it opened to buy ammunition.

Rene, on a recent Friday morning on Westheimer Street, was joined by about 50 others, all with the same goal. Over the past several months, gun owners have had to contend with a severe shortages of ammo, requiring them not only to get up early to line up at sporting goods stores and gun shops, but also to comb social media for tips on ammo shipments and drive long distances to the stores that are getting them.

Ammo shelves at big retailers such as Academy Sports have been bare for months, said shoppers. Smaller gun shops said their days are spent fielding dozens, if not hundreds, of calls from customers wondering when their next shipment is coming in.

Retailers like Danny Clark, owner of Collectors Firearms on Westheimer, said it’s so hard to get enough supply through the formal channels that he’s buying from customers who have ammo stashes tucked away - and paying top dollar for it. A box of 9 millimeter rounds, which used to cost $15 a box, now goes as high as $75.

“We get accused of price gouging all the time, but really it’s supply, demand,” he said. “I’m paying three, four times what I was paying.”