Gun Rights Advocates Say Proposed Lead Ammo Ban Part of Larger Anti-Hunting Agenda
The
Epoch Times
By
Michael Clements
8/30/2023
Updated: 8/30/2023
The
goal of a proposed federal rule to ban lead ammunition from National Wildlife
Refuges has nothing to do with protecting wildlife, Second Amendment advocates
say.
“This
is a way to price outdoorsmen and women off public lands,” Mark Oliva,
managing director for public affairs of the National Shooting Sports Foundation
(NSSF), the trade association for the firearms industry, told The Epoch Times.
The
rule proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on June 22, 2023,
would open three National Wildlife Refuges (NWR), drawing praise from the gun
groups.
However,
the rule would also prohibit using lead shot and lead fishing tackle in eight
NWRs in five states.
They
are the Blackwater NWR and Patuxent Research Refuge in Maryland,
the Chincoteague, Eastern Neck, Wallops Island NWRs in Virginia,
the Erie NWR in Pennsylvania, the Great Thicket NWR in Massachusetts,
and the Rachel Carson NWR in Maine.
According
to the FWS, the move is to protect wildlife from lead poisoning. But a wildlife
biologist and gun rights advocate says the FWS rule is based on politics, not
solid research.
“It
is not based on science. I believe this is designed to drive up ammunition
costs to discourage hunting,” Mark Jones, the National Director for Hunter
Outreach for Gun Owners of America and a wildlife biologist with 20 years of
experience, told The Epoch Times.
“I
believe that’s the goal of many people.”
The
FWS did not respond to The Epoch Times's requests for comment.
According
to the FWS website, the rule,
“National Wildlife Refuge System: 2023-2024 Station-Specific Hunting and Sport
Fishing Regulations” is intended to protect wildlife from lead poisoning.
The
FWS states that it used “the best available science” to write the rule.
According to the website (pdf),
wildlife is exposed to lead in many ways. This includes ingesting lead fishing
tackle or residual lead shot left by hunters, or eating carrion that contains
lead shot. They can also ingest soluble lead in water, soil, and manmade
sources such as lead-based paint chips.
Mr.
Jones said much of the data presented comes from studies of the California
Condor. According to the FWS, (pdf), between 1990 and 2020, approximately half of the
213 condors that died from a known cause were killed by lead poisoning. But Mr.
Jones said the California Condor is not typical of the animals found in a NWR.
“Condors
are getting access to lead from sources other than ammunition,” he said.
NSSF
officials agree with Mr. Jones’s assessment.
In
an Aug. 20, 2023, letter to the FWS, an NSSF official wrote that the available
scientific studies do not support FWS claims that lead is a widespread danger to
wildlife.
“Decades
of significant research exist on lead and wildlife. It is grossly misleading to
insinuate that lead ammunition poses a danger to ‘wildlife’ as a whole,” wrote
Lawrence G. Keane, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs, assistant secretary,
and general counsel for the NSSF.
“The
science does not support this claim.”
According
to the letter, the FWS cites studies that use “cherry-picked samples of venison
X-rayed by a veterinarian” as evidence of lead contamination in wildlife. But
those studies don’t clearly link the supposed lead and any alleged poisoning.
Mr. Keane wrote that the objects in the X-rays could have been something other
than lead.
“No
clear indication was made, only blame assigned. Reliance on this editorial and
study is misplaced,” he wrote.
Mr.
Keane said studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of hunters
in North Dakota showed no evidence of elevated levels of lead in the blood of
people who regularly consumed wild game.
This
is not the first time lead shot has been an issue. Lead shot was banned from
waterfowl hunting in 1991. For years, ducks, coots, and other waterfowl were
suspected of dying from lead poisoning.
Mr.
Jones said that, in time, it became clear that was the case.
He
said that, unlike raptors, ducks must ingest gravel so their gizzards can grind
up their food. According to Mr. Jones, the waterfowl would scoop up residual
lead shot from the soil where hunters had been shooting.
Other
animals don’t need to swallow gravel, so they will not likely ingest lead in
this way.
“A
deer isn’t going to paw the ground and dig up spent slugs and swallow
them," he said. "Those are two very, very different situations.”
Mr.
Oliva said the true objective has nothing to do with saving wildlife.
“This
is a way to price outdoorsmen and women off the public lands,” he said.
Mr.
Oliva said the rule will force hunters to turn to lead-free alternatives that
are expensive and difficult to find.
He
said up to 95 percent of all ammunition uses lead, with only 5 to 10 percent of
commercially produced ammunition comprising non-lead components. Compounding
the problem is that only about 1 percent of the alternative ammunition is
centerfire rifle ammunition used in big game hunting.
Alternatives
Are Scarce, Expensive
“Forcing
all hunters on NWR land to only use alternative non-lead ammunition puts a
large strain on the supply of that ammunition,” Mr. Keane’s letter reads.
Mr.
Jones pointed out that the majority of hunters depend on public land. Both men
said the rule appears to be part of a plan by anti-hunting and anti-gun forces.
They pointed out that the Obama administration had banned lead ammunition on
all public lands the day before President Donald Trump took office.
President
Trump’s first Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, rescinded that order as
his first act.
Mr.
Oliva and Mr. Jones say this rule is part of a plan to stop hunting on public
lands.
“This
[step] is more insidious. They will expand it to more and more areas,” Mr.
Jones said.
Mr.
Oliva pointed out that the rule has not yet been set. The public comment period
ended on Aug. 22. Now, the FWS will consider the public comments and determine
what adjustments need to be made. He said Mr. Keane’s letter makes clear the
NSSF’s position on the issue.
“[The
FWS has] presented no site-specific, peer-reviewed evidence that traditional
ammunition is causing any harm. They’re trying to ban traditional lead
ammunition with no scientific evidence,” Mr. Oliva said.
Mr.
Jones said that the public’s position on the rule should be clear by GOA's
calculations. He noted that FWS had received 18,564 comments by the deadline.
According to GOA records, 17,608 were from GOA members and supporters opposed
to the rule.
“We
know that at least 95 percent are opposed,” Mr. Jones said.
Connecting
the Dots:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is a division of
the U.S. Department of the Interior.
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.
Resources:
Past Research
Obama
Says Goodbye to America’s Gun Owners with (a Likely Short-lived) Lead Ammo Ban
(Past Research on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (FWS))
SATURDAY,
JANUARY 28, 2017
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