According to TFB, the final source for lead in the United States will be forced to shut down thanks to the new EPA standards that the Obama administration is mandating. Apparently the facility would cost $100 million to bring up to code, and the company that runs it would rather strip the site and sell it than spend the money to refurbish it. From STL Today . . .
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the company “made a business decision” to shut down the smelter instead of installing pollution control technologies needed to reduce sulfur dioxide and lead emissions as required by the Clean Air Act.
The Doe Run Co. announced last year that it had dropped plans to build a new lead processing facility in Herculaneum that would have used a new, cleaner lead production technology. The company cited the $100 million project as too financially risky.
As I said, this was the final lead production facility in the United States. Its location was one of the prime reasons that the Lake City arsenal and other ammunition manufacturers have established themselves nearby, to keep shipping costs down. But with the lead no longer flowing, the next most viable source will be China and require substantially more money to truck overseas for production.
This will also be a big headache for range facilities, since some of them use the reclaimed lead from the dirt berms to pay the bills. There are companies in the United States that will actually pay the range to come in and refurbish their berms, giving them a percentage of the money they make selling the reclaimed lead back to this smelting facility. MCB Quantico operates their ranges this way, closing down once every four years for a re-fit that pays for a lot of the ranges’ services. Now that they will need to ship that lead overseas before it is processed, that will make the whole business more expensive and might drive up range fees.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the price of ammunition jumps as well. Heck, this might even kick off a second ammo shortage if things go badly.
because, lead production is SO MUCH cleaner in China. These policies amount to: its fine if we destroy the environment, as long as its the Chinese environment.
Oh, they don’t care if it’s our environment, just as long as someone else does it. We can’t drill in the gulf, but we can buy oil from South American companies who do. All the risk (whatever great or small that may be), none of the benefit of producing our own oil.
Tinfoil hat time! Was this something that was already going to happen, or was this another screw gun owners over through EO idea? How many people are losing their jobs and what are the jobs ripple effect?
the obummer admin is not specifically targeting lead, they are targeting just about everything. they want all nasty manufacturing, coal production, and so on, moved overseas.
Can’t grow the welfare roster with all those jobs hanging around.
2016 cannot come fast enough . . . . .
They said that about 2012 and a bunch of crybabies sat out the elections and handed BHO a second term.
Andy – Voting for guys like Romney is what got us into this mess in the first place. As I wrote below, Nixon created the EPA , Bush I signed the Clean Air Act, and Bush II and the Republican Congress couldn’t bring themselves to do anything about it for the six years they had full control of the government. Romney would have been part of the same problem – and if Obama weren’t president now, the next Democratic president would do what Obama’s doing now. So long as Republicans not only accept but actively promote liberal policies, then we will continue to suffer actions like the most recent one by the EPA.
Oh boy. This is going to really jack the price of ammo. Get ready folks.
I know, and to think that the only reason for this was love for the planet.
Who could have ever expected such shocking, unpredictable changes in the market because of something so innocent as “common sense” state regulations to make us all healthy and save some species of animal.
Ok, I’m done. Honestly, I don’t know the scientific claims behind this, but I’d be surprised if this wasn’t in some way supported more by the disarmament crowd than the environmental regulations crowd.
Just took the Maryland required class Sunday. It was the cheapest class I could find but I had to drive almost an hour to get there…
Everyone preaches about how gun-friendly Texas is supposed to be, but no open carry and a FELONY if you carry in a ‘forbidden’ location? Seriously, a FELONY???
Clueless idiots running the country,what do you expect.This way we can buy our lead from china and not import it to Calfornia,and let everybody except ourselves drill for oil so we can buy it and import it ,and we can send all our jobs overseas and let them import their products tariff free so our quality of life goes down and we can eventually all get jobs at Walmart and soon our country will be owned by everybody else except us as our national debt soars and the libatards will run the country so no common sense will be common sense!
Don’t you see the logic in all this ? What’s wrong with you? Don’t you want this? Doesn’t “common sense” gun laws just make sense? Why do you need a gun,?why do you need to defend yourself?why do you need an ar-15 ?,won’t a slingshot make you happy?Why do you need food comrad,can’t you get goulash from the commons tub like the rest of the comrads?
You don’t need lead,you don’t even need bullets,just get killed and be happy about it,comrad!
East Penn Manufacturing, in Lyons PA still has an EPA approved and operating lead smelter.
There are two kinds of smelters: primary smelters produce lead from raw ore, and secondary smelters reprocess scrap back into clean lead. Doe Run was the last primary smelter, but there are still several secondary smelters operating in the U.S. So the whole bit about range fees going up and so on seems pretty unlikely – there’s still several places left in the U.S. that will recycle your lead for you without shipping it to China.
It probably will have an effect on the price of lead, though, since Doe Run was a pretty big operation. The supply of lead will decrease, so prices will go up. How much is anyone’s guess.
Hmmm. Sounds fishy. They still make lead batteries in this country, last I heard.
Death and murder are different things. “…context war . . .”? What am I reading.
Firearm violence, firearm death and murder, and firearm crime, are simply a resiude of the very existence of firearms. The only issue is the severeity and frequency. A dog barks, poops on the floor, barks, growls, sometimes bites people. Sometimes people are injured or killed by dogs. Same with motor vehicle accidents. Same with industrial accidents.
This cannot be spun any other way, to try and deny this…foolish.
How is closing the last lead manufacturer and buying now from China not a national security issue???
This is outrageous. Seriously. We must have at least one domestic facility with the ability to process lead for national defense reasons. If World War III started heaven forbid, we must be able to manufacture ammunition in the United States without depending on foreign countries.
We really need to rattle some cages of the appropriate members of the House and Senate. Our government has stated that certain financial institutions are “too big to fail”. Well we cannot close our only remaining lead processing facility.
Excellent point.
Our willful self-wounding is reminiscent of the British Labor Party’s relinquishing control of Irish ports on the eve of Word War II. Ireland then declared neutrality when the war began, and Britain found herself without essential resources. (See, e.g., http://www.winstonchurchill.org/component/content/article/18-book-reviews/162-churchill-and-ireland – or just take a look at the first volume of Churchill’s WW2 memoirs.)
Gun owners should put up a kickstarter campaign to at least let the company know that people in America are either willing to support the costs of the refit or they have confidence that the company will come out of this financial dip fine in a few years. Granted it’s their money and their bet they would ultimately have to make though.
Would be more effective if we started kickstarters to support those against the democrats doing this.
I don’t support paying for refitting I don’t deem necessary. I support kicking these jerks out of office.
I support closing the EPA, among others.
“…for the nonviolent crime of attempted burglary…”?
This is exactly the type of crime which frightens people the most. The effect on victims of burglary are devastating. All the burglars I have had the displeasure of encountering are habitual offenders, with the crimes they were prosecuted for being a tiny fraction of their actual level of offending.
Strange narrative – a bunch on NY ‘gangbangers’ shooting each other up is cynically portrayed, whilst this scum gets waved through.
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2013/10/robert-farago/new-york-city-ends-murder-lull/#more-266659
Another penis lover. What is it about grabbers and penii? Personally, I prefer the vag. I spent the first 9 months of my life trying to get out of one and then the rest of my life trying to get back in.
He can’t write. He can’t draw. And he certainly can’t think. What CAN you do, Mr. Bors?
A few notes regarding the 51% rule. As a native Texan and lifetime resident who chooses to partake of alcohol on a pretty limited basis (On average, I might drink 1-2 times a year), I find the 51% rule to be a pain in the ass. That said, as much as I love the state in which I have lived my entire life, I have to admit that we Texans sometimes aren’t as good at “self-policing” as we could be.
You’d think that, with the preponderance of evidence that drinking and driving is a bad idea, that we’d avoid it like the plague… though you’d be mistaken. I understand the reason behind that; population density here is relatively low, and as such, there is no viable mass transit system. Which means that you have to drive to the bar; and while I am always willing to be the designated driver, it seems that plenty of other people don’t want to feel “left out” by not getting sloshed.
So. While I would prefer a “drink = no carry, carry = no drink” rule (over the 51% rule), I can see the reasoning behind the more restrictive law. Not that I agree with it, but to quote Chris Rock, “I’m not saying it’s okay… but I understand”.
The sheer number of tired cliches this guy spouts in one paragraph is impressive.
Open your eyes people. The Progressives want as much power as possible. And their simple game plan: drive our nation’s economy into the ground so that the masses, in utter desperation, give themselves over to the governing party that will “save them” from literal starvation. And guess which political party offers the most handouts? Yes sir the good old democrats.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not a big fan of republicans either. They have passed the budgets and allowed the executive orders to stand that are driving us to the edge of oblivion.
So, do not be fooled. Government will justify their actions with arguments such as environmental policy but those are all a ruse. I am a huge fan of a clean, healthy environment. But what good is a pristine environment if almost everyone is starving or ill? Even stone age humans impacted our environment. We need balance and sending everything overseas is not a healthy balance.
Please stop panicking over every little thing, guys
If guns were phallic, no man would buy one with a two inch barrel. And no man would ever consider paying 200 bucks and getting finger printed to cut one shorter than 16 inches. EVER.
Gotta love the backwards shoulder rig. Bors is a smart one, he is.
What I really like about this article is how this guy is so ‘one of us!’ I mean, he tells us at least 5 times how not against guns he is while he uses every non-statistical argument (except some video game stat) to argue against guns… and perfectly, has comments disabled on his blog, so he won’t have to hear any facts, statistics or scientific evidence proving that he just dropped a giant load of bullshit on the internets and ran away.
This guy would lose a gun debate with even a casually informed 11 year old.
To be fair, I don’t think medium.com actually has any provisions for comments at all. Which is a shame, as Kyle Mizokami posts some great stuff there in ‘War is Boring’:
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/8670defcc25
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/dacf4034458c
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/730306edb6e3
Right Mr. Bors … because the millions of women who carry firearms are compensating for their small penis size. What a complete jackass.
I have never in my entire life seen an armed citizen in public who, for the sole reason that they wanted to “feel safe”, was pointing their firearm at a cashier with an enraged look on their face. This guy needs psychiatric help. And I am not giving up my rights to comfort hysterical people like Mr. Bors who have totally lost touch with reality.
“But the scenarios you are preparing for aren’t going to happen. You aren’t going to save the day by shooting a terrorist in the grocery store.”
Well, maybe not a terrorist, but Ms. Cordova was lucky there was someone carrying in a Walmart the day her ex-husband decided to attack her with a large knife at work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soZT__WQKsM&feature=youtu.be
And the shoppers at this grocery store were lucky there was a good guy with a gun to stop a lunatic on a stabbing spree:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdEKsNUc2kQ
I love shooting, but I sincerely wish there were a less-toxic alternative that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. (Cough Barnes Bullets cough.)
Unlike iron, or zinc or calcium, lead is a toxin just like mercury or cadmium, and there’s no ‘good’ amount of it to have in your system. Even five micrograms per deciliter of blood causes fatigue, nerve damage, and cognitive deficits in adults. In children whose growing brains take up more minerals, the damage is even more severe.
I know we depend on it for our ammunition, but let’s recognize that lead smelting is just about the most toxic industrial operation ever invented?Lead smelters use 19th century technology to refine it and put tons of it (literally, actually tons of it) into the nearby air, water and soil every year.
Lead smelting wasn’t exactly a thriving industry before this, because the biggest industrial consumers of lead used to be petroleum refineries and the paint industry. Lead used to be an industrial staple, but today very few products are allowed to have any lead in them at all.
Epidemiologists strongly suspect there’s a causal link between the reduced crime rates in the US in recent decades, and the elimination of lead from paint products and gasoline. After the removal of these lead sources, blood lead levels in young children decreased by about 75% across the board by the mid-1990s.
I wish we weren’t just exporting all our pollution to China, but at least a Chinese lead smelter won’t turn my kids into mentally defective morons. If the Chinese want to do that to their own kids, unfortunately we can’t stop them.
CC’ers have in fact deterred a great many things. They can’t help with mass shootings though since those only occur in defense free zones.
Dear Mr. Bors,
You can have pens and paper in case you need to draw yourself out of a sticky situation. You can keep them locked up in a safe just in case Hitler is resurrected from the dead and we need you to lampoon him. You can use your computer as a paperweight locked up in your house. We’ll call you if we need your obviously limited talents. And about the ‘penis’ bit, really? Don’t hold your breath waiting for that call….
There is a key definition here that is being missed. Doe Run is/was a primary smelter. This means that it takes in ore and produces lead from that. This does not affect secondary smelters, which reprocess used lead from various sources, including car batteries, range berms, etc. Primary lead production, like most mining and processing, is an incredibly dirty process and in the case of lead can and has led to birth defects, neurological dysfunction, and numerous other effects throughout the human body. It is not nice stuff to be around. This is why US Lead is now Superfund a site. Lead emissions WILL kill you, eventually. After it turns your brain into swiss cheese. If the company cannot do business without meeting lead emissions restrictions, it really shouldn’t be in business, because once it’s out there, there isn’t much you can do about it, and everyone living near that production facility will pay the price for it, if they haven’t already. It all very nice to decry evil regulations, but I highly doubt too many people are willing to let a known lead emitter set up near their drinking water.
They held their “Event” at a bar ? were the heck were the MADD (moms against drunk driving) crowd?
They may have needed to be protested !!
These women are in desperate need of a good husband! They seem to be suffering from terminal frustration..
I get the same crap when I’m driving around in my car. I own a nice car. But the eco-weenies in their holier-than-thou Priuses have to make rude comments like “Oh, so sorry about your tiny thingie!” Maybe I’m not compensating for something. Maybe I just like to have a nice car. No, that can’t be it. The liberal mind can’t allow for such a simple reason for having such a horrible, wasteful thing. He must have a tiny penis, that has to be it. He’s insecure and shallow so this is how he makes up for it. Same thing with the gun. Granted, a lot fewer people know I have a firearm but I hear the same comments directed at gun owners. “You only have that thing because you have a small penis.” What about all the women who have guns? I guess they have them because they don’t have a penis at all! (..well, some of them do..I don’t think I’ll ever un-see that).
I don’t know if it’s projection or what but it’s old and I’m tired of it.
According to my gour year old this retard can’t draw (I’m paraphrasing). Really!?!? The penis thing again my girlfriend is really sensitive about her small penis that’s why she has a 12 gauge in the closet. Thanks Matt Bors now we gotta go back to the shrink.
Matt Bors, who seems to equate gun ownership only with micro-penis status, must be the epitome of masculinity in order to feel confident leveling such claims. By his logic, he must have a gigantic penis and stone-chiseled jaw, having no need or want for firearms due to his sheer Herculean constitution.
Then again, maybe not.
http://i.imgur.com/1dsCmBY.jpg
I am interested in hearing his opinion on how all female shooters suffer from acute penis-envy syndrome. Maybe I should buy my wife a strap-on for Christmas, it will save on ammo costs.
I thought bloggers are the ones who are compensating for their small penis size. What say you Robert? 😉
This is written by someone who has never been personally exposed for any length of time to someone who owned and carried a gun. There’s so much rank ignorance in this that it’s not worth my time to try and fight it, unless I was personally acquainted with the guy. Words on paper will never, repeat never, change his mind. He’s (clearly) heard all the arguments, and dismissed them as nonsense, so until he has personal, real-world experience to counter his assumptions, he will remain the way he is, secure in his sneering ignorance.
My question is, if concealed carry has never stopped a mass shooting, give me ONE example of a mass shooting where a CCW holder was there and did not stop it.
.
As Bill Whittle says, we’re becoming a Beta Nation full of Beta Males.
Wait, WHAT? He’s suggesting taking a self defense class (using the body as a weapon) is OK, while at the same time lambasting those who choose to carry a weapon outright, while both more or less accomplish the same end goal? Good grief.
Eh… they’re carrying guns out like that as a political demonstration, not because they’re fearful of criminals. The merits of such a technique as a political demonstration would be an appropriate subject of debate, but not so much whether or not the people demonstrating have insecurity issues.
In this case it seems like it was an organized and well-attended demonstration where the group had some unified notion of decorum and etiquette, which whether it should be necessary or not, adds greatly to a sense of legitimacy in the eye of the public and therefore helps the cause rather than hurting it.
-D
First rule of the internet: Never read comments on new articles.
I hope the fix was to put a selector switch on it.
If I could respond to Zen I would simply say “cool story, bro” and ignore him forever. You don’t like it? Move to the UK.
It’s true — those tight hipster jeans actually do cut off oxygen to the brain.
Here.We.Go.Again.
It’s amazing that all of these happen when Obama’s out giving speeches about some disaster. Maybe we should ban the president from addressing the public.
I think the gun grabbers who are obsessed with penis size should just go ahead and come out of the closet. Why would you get so interested in the size of male appendages unless you are gay.
They are already here sadly. If not for a veto from Governor Sandoval, Nevada would have a universal background check law.
“My observation from life is that the people who feel so insecure and so threatened by the world that they can’t walk in public without carrying a gun are pussies.”
so – ZenTwit is saying that all uniformed policemen and policewomen are pussies? Just askin’ ….
If it wasn’t for the NRA, no child would ever contemplate committing a murder/suicide! How can a young person go on when the gun lobby is opposing universal background checks!?!
8-10 pounds heavy? Thats the perfect weight for competition 5.5 kg (12 pounds) is a bit on the heavy side, too bad I cant borrow something lighter to shoot with.
That’s a middle school? It looks like a roller rink.
For what it is worth, it is refreshing to see a chief of police WITHOUT all the gold stars, gold braid, etc. Looks like he might have come up thru the ranks.
My prediction about the future of “Medium”:
http://psx-scene.com/forums/attachments/f118/31551d1320778900-mathueulh-pissed-not-single-fuck-given-day.jpg
Kill, Bang, Marry.
KJW for the win. Hands down.
“from home” often means “from drug-dealing uncle” so let’s see how this shakes out.
“A well-armed society is a polite society” – Let’s make that happen, please!
The 1911 is the chevy 350 of guns not perfect or efficient but big, old design , reliable , plentiful in parts , and sexy
m1
Wow how disappointed in my son that letter would make me. This comes from the popular cultural attitude of avoiding responsibility and teaching kids to not handle any. Any child (around) 8 or older who was taught correctly you can trust with a firearm.
I’m really uncomfortable with that logic. Im not sure i have anything witty to say.
I suppose each aprent has a responsiblity to know who their children are and work from there.
This is actual “common sense gun control.” I trust my kids about as far as I can throw them. They can’t stay out of the ice cream in the freezer if I don’t lock it up. They know all four (not three) of the rules. They know how to aim. They know how to check and clear a weapon when it’s handed to them. I even trust my 15yo daughter to carry pepper spray on her every day. But I wouldn’t leave the guns out where they can be accessed by the younger kids.
My 15yr old on the other hand (the one with pepper spray) does have the codes to the safes. I trust her to use the firearms when she is home alone or babysitting. But that is a personal call I will make on a kid by kid basis. My boys probably won’t get the codes when they get older because they are boys, and lets face it boys tend to do dumber things, especially when they are teenagers. They will however grow up completely comfortable and well versed in firearms safety, technique, and use.
I know my kids are smart, polite, and respectful. I get told so all the time. But they still aren’t responsible. They will make mistakes and do things wrong. I don’t want one of those things to be “Hey, want to see my dads cool ______?” Then watch one of their friends do something dumb. It’s also quite possible that one of my kids, as good of a parent as I am, could make a really bad decision. I don’t leave alcohol laying around for them to access because I don’t want them to get involved in underage drinking. Why would I do anything different with my guns?
For the record . . . the Supreme Court Justices function as judges and jurors.
And I do not need any justices, jurors, judges, etc. to tell me red is red, up is up, and that the men who founded this nation intended for common folk to be able to have the same hardware as soldiers & Blackwater Hessians. When “right” become illegal & “wrong” is funded w/ tax dollars, its time to appeal to God in a court of blood. I think right wing fanatics like Washington & Adams would agree 🙂
“..increased gun danger” Oh me oh my. Easy on the eyes but dumb as a bag of hammers.
It’s hard enough finding ammo for my ps90. That last thing is another gun to have to share what ammo I can get with.
It’s very good to see this useful post on dog training.
I have a question however. How do you work with a younger dog?
Im not going to take a partisan side it seems enough people are already doing that.
What I will do is outline this decision from an scientific point of view. Firstly, 75% of lead is used worldwide for car battery production. The use for ammunition production accounts for around 4% therefore production of ammunition has a negligable influence on its availability or price. If anything the choice to discontinue lead production in the US has more to do with the decline of the car industry than naything to do with ammunition.
With regards to the environmental aspect. Im assuming that the 100 million $ price tag mentioned above would involve the construction of a completly new furnace. (roughly its pricetage) This implies that the current method of production cannot be modified in such a way as to meet the new environmental regulations. Based on this I assume they are using old blast furnace technology. I have worked at lead production facilities and trust me they are pretty nasty places the general health of the workers, the surroundings and the people within a wide radius around the plant suffers dramatically. Closing of the facility just points out that it can no longer keep pace with the industry of today its life expectancy has been reached: this is normal in industry.
Many of the lead production facilities in Eastern Europe have been forced to shut when the respective countries ascended to the European Union as they too have very stringent environmental regulations. There are still a few facilities one of which I am currently working at. They have just invested 80 million euros to build a new lead plant for exactly the same reason