Obama Says Goodbye to America’s Gun Owners with (a
Likely Short-lived) Lead Ammo Ban
Friday, January 20, 2017
Gun owners knew that Barack Obama would
not leave quietly. The only question was what else was coming.
An answer came late in the day on January 19. With his successor’s inauguration only hours away, he completed his final assault on gun owners' and sportsmen's rights, this time in the form of Director’s Order No. 219 of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The order seeks to expand “the use of nontoxic ammunition and fishing tackle on Service lands, waters and facilities and for certain types of hunting and fishing regulated by the Service” outside of those areas.
The order states that FWS policy will be to “[r]equire the use of nontoxic ammunition and fishing tackle to the fullest extent practicable for all activities on Service lands, waters, and facilities by January 2022, except as needed for law enforcement or health and safety uses.” It also calls for collaboration with state and fish wildlife agencies in implementing this policy.
The order goes on to outline a series of steps the FWS will take to implement the policy, first and foremost of which is the favored gun control tactic of using “science” to re-enforce pre-existing policy goals, rather than to guide those goals in the first place. Rather humorously, the order states, “The Service will continue to support targeted research to understand the human, fish, and wildlife health benefits of using nontoxic ammunition and fishing tackle.”
And if science were to discover lead wasn’t so bad or non-lead ammunition and fishing tackle could actually lead to adverse health effects of their own? Well, that wouldn’t be “targeted.”
The order also requires that “over the next 24 months, each Regional Director, in coordination with relevant Assistant Directors, should work with individual states, regional state fish and wildlife associations, and tribes to identify opportunities to expand existing state, Federal, or tribal requirements for use of nontoxic ammunition and fishing tackle on Service lands, waters and facilities.”
It goes on to state that FWS Regions should enact and enforce on their own lands, wasters, and facilities requirements for non-lead ammunition and fishing tackle that have already been enacted by states, tribes, and other federal agencies.
The FWS additionally plans to use “available information” on the negative impacts of lead ammunition or fishing tackle on “sensitive, vulnerable or Service trust resources” to justify “steps to expeditiously require” non-lead alternatives “to the fullest extent practical [sic]… to benefit such species or resources.”
And, finally, “[t]he Assistant Director, Migratory Birds, in consultation with National Flyway Councils and individual states, will establish a process to phase in a requirement for the use of nontoxic ammunition for recreational hunting of mourning doves and other upland game birds.”
The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, which represents the state agencies that manage these resources, had harsh words for the FWS order. Association president Nick Wiley stated, “this action flies squarely in the face of a long and constructive tradition of states working in partnership with the Service to effectively manage fish and wildlife resources.” He also characterized the order as “a breach of trust and deeply disappointing given that it was a complete surprise and there was no current dialogue or input from state fish and wildlife agencies prior to issuance.”
To be sure, this latest development further demonstrates the petty, partisan tendencies of the former president and is as aggravating as it was predictable.
But it should do little to dampen the high spirits of sportsmen and sportswomen as Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office, for it sharpens the contrast between the outgoing and incoming administrations. Like so much of what Barack Obama claimed as “accomplishments,” it will hopefully amount to little more than a symbolic act of defiance by a president with little of substance to show for his eight years in office.
In the meantime, it is yet another reminder that a long, trying epoch for America’s gun owners is finally at an end, and a new day with a new outlook is at hand.
An answer came late in the day on January 19. With his successor’s inauguration only hours away, he completed his final assault on gun owners' and sportsmen's rights, this time in the form of Director’s Order No. 219 of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The order seeks to expand “the use of nontoxic ammunition and fishing tackle on Service lands, waters and facilities and for certain types of hunting and fishing regulated by the Service” outside of those areas.
The order states that FWS policy will be to “[r]equire the use of nontoxic ammunition and fishing tackle to the fullest extent practicable for all activities on Service lands, waters, and facilities by January 2022, except as needed for law enforcement or health and safety uses.” It also calls for collaboration with state and fish wildlife agencies in implementing this policy.
The order goes on to outline a series of steps the FWS will take to implement the policy, first and foremost of which is the favored gun control tactic of using “science” to re-enforce pre-existing policy goals, rather than to guide those goals in the first place. Rather humorously, the order states, “The Service will continue to support targeted research to understand the human, fish, and wildlife health benefits of using nontoxic ammunition and fishing tackle.”
And if science were to discover lead wasn’t so bad or non-lead ammunition and fishing tackle could actually lead to adverse health effects of their own? Well, that wouldn’t be “targeted.”
The order also requires that “over the next 24 months, each Regional Director, in coordination with relevant Assistant Directors, should work with individual states, regional state fish and wildlife associations, and tribes to identify opportunities to expand existing state, Federal, or tribal requirements for use of nontoxic ammunition and fishing tackle on Service lands, waters and facilities.”
It goes on to state that FWS Regions should enact and enforce on their own lands, wasters, and facilities requirements for non-lead ammunition and fishing tackle that have already been enacted by states, tribes, and other federal agencies.
The FWS additionally plans to use “available information” on the negative impacts of lead ammunition or fishing tackle on “sensitive, vulnerable or Service trust resources” to justify “steps to expeditiously require” non-lead alternatives “to the fullest extent practical [sic]… to benefit such species or resources.”
And, finally, “[t]he Assistant Director, Migratory Birds, in consultation with National Flyway Councils and individual states, will establish a process to phase in a requirement for the use of nontoxic ammunition for recreational hunting of mourning doves and other upland game birds.”
The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, which represents the state agencies that manage these resources, had harsh words for the FWS order. Association president Nick Wiley stated, “this action flies squarely in the face of a long and constructive tradition of states working in partnership with the Service to effectively manage fish and wildlife resources.” He also characterized the order as “a breach of trust and deeply disappointing given that it was a complete surprise and there was no current dialogue or input from state fish and wildlife agencies prior to issuance.”
To be sure, this latest development further demonstrates the petty, partisan tendencies of the former president and is as aggravating as it was predictable.
But it should do little to dampen the high spirits of sportsmen and sportswomen as Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office, for it sharpens the contrast between the outgoing and incoming administrations. Like so much of what Barack Obama claimed as “accomplishments,” it will hopefully amount to little more than a symbolic act of defiance by a president with little of substance to show for his eight years in office.
In the meantime, it is yet another reminder that a long, trying epoch for America’s gun owners is finally at an end, and a new day with a new outlook is at hand.
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is
a division of the U.S. Department of the
Interior.
Note: David J. Hayes
was a deputy secretary for the U.S.
Department of the Interior, and is senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Center
for American Progress calls for heightened “Gun Safety, Gun Control”
for guns.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Center
for American Progress.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, was the chairman for the Foundation to
Promote Open Society, and a
supporter for the Center for American
Progress.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American Progress, and the Climate Reality Project.
Ezekiel Emanuel
is a senior fellow at the Center for
American Progress, Rahm I. Emanuel’s
brother, and was the health care policy adviser for the Barack Obama administration.
Rahm I. Emanuel
is Ezekiel Emanuel’s brother, the Chicago (IL) mayor, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was the
White House chief of staff for the Barack
Obama administration.
R. Eden Martin is
the president of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Newton N. Minow is
a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
and a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past
Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Penny S. Pritzker
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, the secretary at the U.S.
Department of Commerce for the Barack Obama administration, married to
Bryan Traubert, was the national finance chair, fundraiser
for the 2008 Barack Obama presidential
campaign, a co-chair for the 2009
Barack Obama inaugural committee, a fundraiser, national co-chair for the 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaign,
a contributor for the 2013 Barack Obama
inaugural committee, the host for the Barack
Obama fund-raising dinner, 7/2/2008, and Craig M. Robinson’s basketball coach for the children's team.
Bryan Traubert
is married to Penny S. Pritzker, and
a director at the National Park
Foundation.
Sally Jewell is
the chair for the National Park
Foundation, and the secretary for the U.S.
Department of the Interior.
U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is
a division of the U.S. Department of the
Interior.
George T.
Frampton Jr. was an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Albert A. Gore Jr’s attorney, is a senior of counsel at Covington & Burling LLP, and a governing
council member for the Wilderness
Society.
Covington
& Burling LLP was the lobby firm for the Americans for Responsible Solutions.
Americans
for Responsible Solutions is a “Gun
Safety, Gun Control” PAC for guns.
Albert A. Gore Jr.’s
attorney was George T. Frampton Jr.,
and the chairman for the Climate Reality
Project.
Carol M. Browner
was a director at the Climate Reality
Project, the energy czar for the Barack
Obama administration, an administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is a director at the Center for American Progress, and a senior
counselor for the Albright Stonebridge
Group.
Center
for American Progress calls for heightened “Gun Safety, Gun Control”
for guns.
David J. Hayes is
senior fellow at the Center for American
Progress, and was a deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of the Interior.
U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Madeleine K.
Albright is a director at the Center
for American Progress, a co-chairman for the Albright Stonebridge Group, and an advisory board member for the Truman National Security Project.
Center
for American Progress calls for heightened “Gun Safety, Gun Control”
for guns.
Melody C. Barnes
was the EVP for the Center for American
Progress, a domestic policy council, director for the Barack Obama administration, is a senior adviser for the Albright Stonebridge Group, and Barack Obama’s golf partner.
Gabrielle
Giffords is an advisory board member for the Truman National Security Project, and a co-founder for the Americans for Responsible Solutions.
Americans
for Responsible Solutions is a “Gun
Safety, Gun Control” PAC for guns.
Covington
& Burling LLP was the lobby firm for the Americans for Responsible Solutions.
George T.
Frampton Jr. is a senior of counsel at Covington
& Burling LLP, a governing council member for the Wilderness Society, was an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of the Interior, and Albert A. Gore Jr’s attorney.
Hansjorg Wyss is
a governing council member for the Wilderness
Society, and a director at the Center
for American Progress.
Center
for American Progress calls for heightened “Gun Safety, Gun Control”
for guns.
David J. Hayes is
senior fellow at the Center for American
Progress, and was a deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of the Interior.
U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is
a division of the U.S. Department of the
Interior.
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