Banning Lead Bullets
Aug 27th, 2010 by FVoshell
Those of us who said “Just wait and see” when it was rumored the EPA would bypass the legislature and sneak all kinds of regulatory controls into its bureaucratic apparatus might be excused for now saying “I told you so.”
It appears several environmental groups are petitioning the EPA, led by Administrator Lisa Jackson, to ban lead bullets, shot and fishing sinkers under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Wait a minute, some might hasten to say. The EPA can’t control ammunition! They’re barred from so doing by law.
Well, not quite.
In an end run around the statues forbidding the EPA to control ammunition, environmentalist groups are asking the EPA to ban the use of lead in bullets. The reasoning? Non-lead alternatives are readily available.
The problem, however, is that non-lead ammunition is about double the cost of traditional lead ammunition. This means a box of deer hunting bullets could cost up to $55.
Charitably enough, the EPA has opened the banning of lead ammunition to public comment. I can just imagine the gun fire as hunters contemplate the doubling of their cost for bullets. As John McCormack, author of “Environmental Protection Agency Reviewing Petition to Ban Lead Bullets” (on which my above comments are based), points out, “You might say that even considering enacting what is effectively a new tax on hunters and gun owners…is less-than—perfect timing for the already beleaguered Democrats as the midterm elections approach.”
Predictably, supporters of gun rights are firing back, shooting down the EPA’s claims it has jurisdiction and pointing out the inevitable carnage to U.S. industry, jobs and law enforcement.
McCormack writes the National Shooting Sports Foundation “estimates that more than 90 percent of hunters and sport shooters use traditional lead ammunition. If all hunters were forced to buy non-lead bullets that are made out of metals like tungsten, bismuth, and copper alloys, demand could easily begin to outstrip the supply and prices would go even higher.”
If there were one more way Democrats could shoot themselves in the foot, this would be it. Banning lead just before an election and the start of hunting seasons could not be more calculated to drive yet more hunters, fishermen, law enforcement officials and just plain old gun owners into the waiting arms of the Republicans.
[Those interested in reading McCormack's entire piece can go to the following link: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/epa-reviewing-request-ban-led-bullets]
I love guns, and have fired hundreds of thousands of rounds. That said I’m not totally opposed to this. I understand that the cost increase is not a good thing, but at some point we have to take a step back and realize that for the most part guns are a luxury and not a necessity. I think keeping lead out of the water, and away from people is worth the added cost. By no means am I a huge environmentalist, but at some point we have to take a step back and look at what we are doing.
The problem, however, is that non-lead ammunition is about double the cost of traditional lead ammunition.
Only if you are allowed to pollute for free.
If you had to go pick up every damn piece of lead, you would gladly pay double for something else.
How much lead is put into the environment by hunters? Firing ranges capture their lead. Waterfowl hunters have been forced to use non-lead shot for over twenty years. Is there any aspect of our lives that these liberal gadflies don’t want to control?
Let’s face it this is just another liberal ploy to ban hunting. Liberals are afraid to do this openly so they get whiny EPA types to do it for them. Remember folks liberals want to control your life and will do it thru the back door since they can’t win in elections.
Thanks Faye for the Post.
“Guns are a luxury and not a necessity”. Then neither is free speech I suppose.
The proposed changes include fishing sinkers too. Are you saying you never lost a sinker?
Why is it so hard to accept that this is a good idea?
The proposed changes include fishing sinkers too. Are you saying you never lost a sinker?
Why is it so hard to admit this is a good idea?
Alpha,
Lead is an element and occurs naturally in the environment. Why don’t yo dig up every ounce and find a way to dispose of it. More important, what proof do you have that a lead sinker that is lost causes anyone harm. I have handled lead sinkers for years and am in perfect health.
TW,
I agree the step is a back door to banning hunting. The EPA knows it would be suicidal to the agency itself and to the environmental groups petitioning it to state “We want to ban hunting and return to a primordial Eden unpolluted by the human beast”–or something like that.
So they go after what might be considered a “reasonable” step; namely, banning lead from all bullets and shot. After all, having read volumes about the dangers and effects of lead on humans and the environment. Haven’t we all heard Nero and Caligula went crazy because they foolishly and ignorantly drank from lead goblets?
Who could possibly object to a no lead environment?
But I think it’s only step one to a US hunt free zoning ordinance.
I remember being told getting lead out of gasoline was an attempt to ban driving so we would all have to walk everywhere so the government could see us better. Then they came after the lead in my paint. I’m figuring it’s a backdoor move by big brother to control what color my house is.
Lead, mercury are heavy metals. Heavy metals are neurotoxins. That’s where the term “mad as a hatter” came from. Some historian say lead wine goblets caused ancient Rome to go nuts. Today, nobody would drink from anything made of lead. Heavy metal poisoning damages the nervous system, the brain causes the shakes, impaired thinking, hallucinations even paranoia. No doubt it is a big time poison. Anybody who doubts that needs to do some google.
Maybe we can come up with a good alternative. Nothing wrong with looking at it. It would be nice if, every time somebody comes up with an idea, good or bad, to improve things we did not knee jerk it into a government plot to screw us over.
Actually, there are a large number of animal rights groups which are against hunting–PETA is just one–and which lobby the EPA vigorously. So I’m not sure it’s paranoid to wonder if the EPA doesn’t have a broader goal than the banning of lead ammunition.
I understand copper ammunition would solve the problem were it no so expensive and did it not mean the end of self cast lead bullets. Casting lead ammunition has a very large following among hunters (and survivalists).
The NRA and other gun rights groups argue lead ammunition doesn’t have the deleterious effects environmentalists insist it does. The NRA’s arguments are readily available on line.
Are sinkers pure lead? If so, they’re probably not water soluble.
That was quick. Turns out the EPA has reversed itself after all the protests.
Maybe they’re holding fire for a battle on behalf of “cap-and-trade.”
http://politics.usnews.com/news/washington-whispers/articles/2010/08/27/epa-surrenders-to-nra-on-gun-control-issue-epa-rejects-attempt-to-regulate-lead-in-bullets-after-nra-protests.html
TW – Try sucking on a bunch of sinkers, or dropping them into your morning coffee, and see how healthy you are in a few years. It’s the equivalent of eating lead paint chips! That’s how they hurt wildlife.
Here’s an AP story on the denial of the petitions:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hCramAIeFnoLFi0z49hPQAC6CrPQD9HS7T6O0
Snip: WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday denied a petition by five environmental groups to ban lead in hunting ammunition, saying the issue is not within the agency’s jurisdiction.
The EPA said it did not have the authority to enact the ban, aimed at protecting wildlife, under the Toxic Substances Control Act, as the groups had requested.
But the agency said it’s still reviewing another part of the petition, to ban lead fishing sinkers.
Try sucking on a bunch of sinkers, or dropping them into your morning coffee, and see how healthy you are in a few years.
I guess that’s supposed to be the equivalent of dropping a lead sinker into Lake Mead?
“Try sucking on a bunch of sinkers, or dropping them into your morning coffee, and see how healthy you are in a few years.
I guess that’s supposed to be the equivalent of dropping a lead sinker into Lake Mead?”
Mynym, anon is just telling us how liberals use sinkers. This should help all to understand the nature of his posts.