Sweeping outdoor bill under fire over lead ammo

seattletimes.com ^ | 25 November, 2012 | Juliet Eilperin

[marktwain]

WASHINGTON — Making life better for fish and wildlife and the people who hunt them lies at the heart of the Sportsmen's Act of 2012, the bill that covers everything from habitat conservation to transporting bows through national parks, which is likely to be approved by the Senate on Monday.

But though the bill enjoys broad, bipartisan support, some environmentalists are not happy with it. The bill ensures that lead can continue to be used in ammunition, which they say poisons some wildlife, and it specifically says that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot regulate components "used in shot, bullets and other projectiles," such as bullets and fishing tackle.

[marktwain]

The article is from the Washington Post. This is how the "Progressive" MSM has power. This bill has broad support... but an anti-human activist group like the Center for Biological Diversity has its opinion put out as fact, even though the 20 million birds killed by lead a year is a highly controversial number, to say the least. Population turnover for birds if very large, with some birds naturally having mortality rates higher than 60% per year. If this did not happen, we would be knee deep in birds very shortly.

A few birds lost to lead poisoning make no difference to the population levels, unless the birds are a longlived species that it particularily at risk of ingesting lead. A plausible case has been made for Californian Condors.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

The lefties love their stupid windmills....I wonder how many birds are killed by them?

[buffaloguy]

13.7 million birds die every day. The 20 million is not a correct number as the majority of exposure has been decreased by steel shot for waterfowling.

Condors live in the lead mining area of CA and they take in the tailings for their gizzard. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service the large majority of lead poisoning of Condors is due to lead residuals from leaded gas.

A lot of fraud going on in this area.

[buffaloguy]

The best number I have seen for lead poisoning is that it is equal to 45 minutes of natural bird deaths. Per year.

Doesn’t even make it onto the charts.

[theBuckwheat]

If enviros would prefer that I use lead-free bullets, they are free to pay me to do so. Clearly, they would prefer to talk government into coercing me via regulations having the effect of law to the same end.

Apart from all the lead that naturally exists in surface deposits, like near Leadville, Colorado, if I thought that a few grams of copper-coated lead in millions of tons of soil and rock were a real threat to the biosphere then I would choose some other bullet. It is for this reason that I don’t use depleted uranium, even though it has superior ballistics due to its density.

[ArrogantBustard]

It is for this reason that I don’t use depleted uranium

With respect, you don't use ²³⁸U because:

1) It is much more expensive than lead.
2) It is much harder than lead.
3) It is much more radioactive than lead.
4) It is much more difficult to obtain than lead.
5) It is pyrophoric. Lead is not.

[Blue Collar Christian]

The Center for Biological Diversity (along with all the rest of the envirowackos) has no real beef with lead, they want to eliminate hunting and fishing. Their ruse is incremental.
I thought everyone was aware of that, no?

[Casie]

Yeah! No more lead bullets! Because there is an infinitesimally small chance that a bird may eat it. But you MUST purchase and use mercury lightbulbs in your home.

[marktwain]

The Center for Biological Diversity (along with all the rest of the envirowackos) has no real beef with lead, they want to eliminate hunting and fishing. Their ruse is incremental.

Correct, but it is hard to convince people of this, as they lie all the time and the MSM repeats the lies.

[theBuckwheat]

Half of those things on your list pertain to the environmental impact of using DU in projectiles. But the liability tail of doing so is so great that only a government that could immunize itself from the economic consequences raises the cost of using DU by a civilian to a level outside of anything affordable. Besides, don’t you know satire when you read it?

[PowderMonkey]

“Lead free” ammo is for the birds, indeed. The designation “lead free” includes not only the bullets, but also the primers. Lead styphenate stabilizes the primers (the component that makes the cartridge go “bang!” In so doing, manufacturers like Remington, Federal, and Black Hills have told me shelf life of their ammo is “indefinite.” Conversely, so called “green” or “lead free” ammo absent lead styphenate in their primers, have a limited shelf life of about 5-6 years. After that, the primers go dead. And, you can bet some govt. weasel is working on a way to shorten even that shelf life span. I avoid lead free “green” ammo like the plague.