Part of the conventional wisdom for selecting a 9mm as your carry or even bug out gun is that 9mm is the most common round out there and you’ll always be able to find it.
So…. what was one of the first calibers to start to disappear from the shelves and is currently being rationed at many stores (when they have it)? Looks like when the chips are down, everyone will be scrambling for the most common rounds. It looks like the local gun shops are starting to recover their ammo stores, but only in the less popular rounds. Of the popular handgun ammo, I noticed 9mm and .22 were the first to go, then .40, and .45 lasted a bit longer. The local Academy had still had a few boxes of 10mm when just about everything else was gone.
Granted, this was “what can I legally buy,” not “what can I scrounge off of dead bodies and salvage from houses,” because that scenario hasn’t happened yet (and I pray it never does), but it does give me pause to rethink the idea. I’m not saying that the argument isn’t still valid, just not as powerful as an argument as we’ve thought. The advantage of having a less popular round is that less people will be fighting you over it. I still wouldn’t recommend some random wildcat round that only 3 guns were ever made for, but my non-9mm pistols have become more attractive as of late because I can find ammo for them.
I have always been a fan of multi-caliber firearms just for these reasons. I have several handguns and carbines that I can change calibers on if needed. Been thinking about picking up one of the new Thompson Center Dimension rilfes to add to the collection as well.
Glock 31 with a stock G22 barrel, and conversion barrel for 9mm.
Advantage Arms 22LR conversion kit, and have enough kit to burn 4 different calibers.