From the NSSF . . .
NSSF, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, rejects the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Final Rule that bans the use of traditional lead ammunition on eight National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) and fishing tackle on seven NWRs in exchange for opening hunting and fishing opportunities on public lands. The announcement banning the use of traditional ammunition and fishing tackle is devoid of any scientific evidence that traditional ammunition causes detrimental population impacts. These efforts only appease anti-hunting special interest groups and are harmful to the long-term conservation gains subsidized by Pittman-Robertson excise taxes paid by the firearm and ammunition industry.
USFWS announced 48 new distinct hunting opportunities across approximately 3,000 acres of NWRs, in a Proposed Rule in June. NSSF condemned the proposal then and urged USFWS to reconsider. This is another illustration of the Biden administration’s Department of the Interior (DOI) and USFWS kowtowing to anti-hunting activists by promulgating policies that lack sound scientific data.
“This administration claimed it would follow the science, yet at every turn they have outright ignored it to appease anti-hunting activists,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “These policies are detrimental to hunters and anglers as they unnecessarily create price barriers to participation. We have pleaded with USFWS to follow the science as they promised, yet they are not acting in the best interest of the public or evidence-based wildlife conservation. The need for Congress to pass the Protecting Access for Hunters and Anglers Act has never been more urgent.”
Requiring the use of alternative ammunition would put a significant cost barrier to participation in hunting and fishing on lands. Alternative ammunition is, on average, 25 percent more expensive than traditional lead ammunition and less available. That barrier would “price out” many hunters and anglers and decrease the excise tax funding paid by firearm and ammunition manufacturers they support. NSSF believes hunters should be free to decide to use traditional or alternative ammunition that best suits their needs when the scientific evidence does not support restrictions.
The USFWS announced three NWRs are proposing to expand opportunities for hunting. These refuges are Cahaba River NWR in Alabama, Everglades Headwaters NWR in Florida and Minnesota Valley NWR in Minnesota. The proposed rule, appearing in the Federal Register, includes proposals to phase out lead ammunition and tackle at eight NWRs. The Final Rule is to be posted in days.
NSSF urges Congress to quickly pass U.S. Rep. Robert Wittman’s (R-Va.) Protecting Access for Hunters and Anglers Act, H.R. 615, which would ensure America’s number one resource of conservation funding remains in place and that hunters, recreational shooters and anglers throughout the nation can continue to enjoy America’s sporting heritage. Excise taxes paid by firearm and ammunition manufacturers have contributed over $16 billion since 1937, or $25 billion when adjusted for inflation, for wildlife and habitat conservation. It is the leading funding source for wildlife restoration. Over $1.6 billion was apportioned to the states for wildlife conservation projects last year, with $1.19 billion of that sourced to excise taxes paid by firearm and ammunition manufacturers. The bill passed the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee on a bipartisan vote earlier this year.
Rep. Wittman’s legislation, along with U.S. Sen. Steve Daines’s (R-Mont.) companion legislation S. 1185 of the same name, would require the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to provide site-specific peer-reviewed scientific data in cooperation with state agencies that demonstrates traditional lead ammunition or fishing tackle is causing detrimental wildlife population impacts before prohibiting their use by hunters and anglers.
The Final Rule published last year to similarly ban traditional ammunition and fishing tackle while opening hunting and fishing opportunities was part of a “sue and settle” litigation between the Center for Biological Diversity and the USFWS and was implemented without scientific evidence or consultation of state agencies.
Its all about control and always has been
When they regulate hunting into oblivion they’ll whine about not being needed anymore too
You can’t apiese the left. They always want more. What do they care about a duck anyway? They all graze on grass.
It’s all based on lies. I have been handling lead almost all of my life. If lead is that dagerous I should have died years ago! I am still alive and kicking at 86 years old. So Take your lead ban and shove it where the sun don’t shine!!
Lol, follow the science has become the mantra of leftism, Scientism that is. You can handle lead all day long, just don’t make pipes out of it or aerosolize it in car exhaust and w y’all be fine. This goes along all the other Scientism claims from “Safe and effective” to “Climate catastrophe”. But ask them who and where those are that are killed and wounded predominately with firearms and if its a socioeconomic or cultural problem and you get crickets… Spoiler, Scientism isn’t science.
86 years old. Congratulations 🎂🍻👍
I agree. My father in law owned operated and retired from a radiator repair shop. Tested for lead every 6 months and never once had an elevated blood test…. Too many follow science mouth breathers that really never follow anything except the sheep in front of them
Too bad they don’t object to Redflag Confiscation Orders and Safe-storage laws.
The “Industry” only cares about money. They don’t care about the 2A or our RKBA.
Negotiating for the use of our land…I believe the Red Man can tell everyone how that turns out.
Turns out good if your Osage
I would love to know the ball park figure that this would price out hunters.
Legislation removing all land management and federal ownership of lands is needed. Return lands to the states with funds for the states to manage for hunting, fishing and other recreation.
Are you joking, the States would exploit the shit out of it.
Take the tall grass prairie reserve for interest, try camping on that State owned leased to cattle company acreage..Nope ,if you want freedom in America you’ve got to have the money to buy that freedom. So I guess by that criteria it’s not really freedom at all.
I’m gonna piss everyone off and diverge from the contemporary pro-gun opinion.
There is plenty of data showing the negative impacts of lead projectiles as they are taken up into the food chain and ecology of local habitats.
Full copper projectiles are extremely effective, and this will create an enhanced demand for them. Bullets such as TSX and GMX rounds are often found in cartridges that are at comparable prices to other common premium ammo. The market demand will create a relatively inexpensive alternative to lead projectiles.
Compared to all of the other costs associated with hunting on public land, a more expensive bullet won’t really hurt anything.
Elemental lead (pure, metallic lead) in the environment isn’t a problem unless birds eat it. Avian guts are highly acidic, it’s how they avoid getting sick with food poisoning when eating tasty (to them) rotting carcasses.
The unavoidable problem with using any metal less dense than lead is the reduction in sectional density, that *greatly* negatively impacts ballistic performance.
Standard, ‘full metal jacket’ ammunition exposed to the elements in a bullet backstop at a gun range, for example, has zero negative impact on the environment because of what happens when lead is exposed to atmospheric oxygen. It instantly forms a lead oxide film that seals out moisture. Lead water pipes were standard for many years and didn’t poison anyone because of that lead oxide film.
Lead in ammunition is nowhere near as dangerous as you have been lead to believe. Who told you those lies has an anti-2A agenda… 🙁
Led to believe, not lead to believe…
*mutter*
“There is plenty of data showing the negative impacts of lead projectiles as they are taken up into the food chain and ecology of local habitats.”
How about a balanced perspective?
https://www.themeateater.com/hunt/firearm-hunting/lead-ammo-and-wildlife-separating-science-from-advocacy
Man, I’ve got a sweet old school 870 with 30inch fixed choke barrel. It was a duck and goose clobbering SOB but now I’m afraid to use anything above #7 shot steel because I dont want to ring bulge the barrel. And #7 steel just looses the oomph past 35yards.
How perfectly fitting, the Maine shooter was found dead in a dumpster… 🙂
“How perfectly fitting, the Maine shooter was found dead in a dumpster… ”
Hmm, not worst case – but I can of even more perfect scenarios.
These people worried about lead shot? Just ridiculous, Every vehicle out there has lead balance weights on each wheel. The aluminum wheels use a double sided tape that holds the wheel weights on the inside of the rim. This tape fails in an alarming rate and the wheels lose the weights which end up on the roadway shoulder or ditch. Almost all roadways are designed with a “crown” to allow rainwater to run off, wait for it…. Into the ditch.
And they are worried about lead shot. It’s just another issue of restricting hunting rights, no facts involved.
those are hard to find now mostly zinc or iron even. bullet casters were saddened by that.
President Trump eliminated this problem when he was in office. But yes, I know. He wouldn’t leg@lize your drugs. As a “consolation prize.” He did support legal Butt Sex. Way back in 1991, before any else.
Unfortunately even that didn’t get him votes in states like California.
My drugs??? Chris I get high on the Greatest President America Has or Ever Will Have. President Joseph Robinett Biden the kiddie diddling hair sniffer that’s shits his pants when he’s negotiating( babbling incoherently)with World Leaders.
American Pride.
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