Are Ammo Shortages Changing Range Etiquette?

Ammo, I don’t need to tell any of you, is in short supply these days. I knew that, and was still surprised the other day when a friend said “Know anyone who has some .22 rimfire ammo they want to sell? I can’t find any.”

When, ever, has there been a shortage of .22 rimfire?

With that in mind, here’s a situation for you Emily Posts out there:

I stopped at my gun club the other day and the only two other people there were a couple of members I haven’t know for long. They were shooting handguns and I went over to see what they had brought for hardware. They showed me their guns. They also told me they had been to three different stores to find four boxes of .22 LR and some .38 and 9mm.

They let me handle all the guns and showed me how the laser sight of one worked so I could try pointing it at the target. Given the shortage of ammunition I did not ask if I could actually shoot any of their guns. However, I was slightly surprised (but not offended) that never once did they say, “Want to take a few shots?”

Me, I would feel obligated to offer someone the chance to shoot a little bit, even if it pained me to do so.

Has range etiquette changed? Anyone else notice people are a little stingier when it comes to sharing ammunition these days?