Lead Smelters and Leftist Lunacy

American Thinker ^ | 12/09/2013 | James Simpson

[EagleUSA]

It was recently announced that our nation's last primary lead smelter, in business since 1892, the Doe Run facility in Herculaneum, Missouri, is closing its doors at the end of this year rather than meet costly new EPA regulations. On the heels of that announcement, there was widespread speculation that the closure would dry up the supply of lead needed for the manufacture of ammunition. The NRA reported that "it is the only smelter in the United States which can produce lead bullion from raw lead ore." Missouri has the largest lead deposits in the world, and this smelter is the only domestic operation capable of extracting lead from ore, hence its "primary" designation.

Not surprisingly, this announcement was followed shortly by opinion pieces speculating that the EPA was engaged in "backdoor gun control."

[EagleUSA]

Marxism marches on in Washington. Major attack on the Second Amendment.

[Venturer]

I always thought most car batteries used lead.

Won’t this impact on car battery prices also?

Also Obama keeps putting American plants out of business and sending that money overseas where dirty plants produce the same thing. Does Obama really believe that the air we breathe is only dirty over those plants? It doesn’t move?

We need some large commons snese coming oput of the EPA and we are not getting it.

Obama is using the EPA like he is using the IRS.

It’s a hammer used to bludgeon America.

[EagleUSA]

“...Obama is using the EPA like he is using the IRS.”

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Yes. This has nothing to do with “clean air”. It is about stopping the availability of lead to manufacture ammo from a USA source. This is why Obama, et al, went out and bought so much ammo over the past years for the military and government agencies. A typical Marxist move that is about control and power over the people and another BIG attack on our Constitution which he hates.

[EagleUSA]

For the Obama apologists who say the shut down is not real.

http://www.doerun.com/MediaCenter/NewsReleases/Article/Herculaneum-Smelter-Update.aspx

[Robert357]

That is an interesting comment about lead batteries for the automobile industry. I would also expect that this will have a huge impact on a host of other things beside just ammo.

For a long time shotgun waterfowl ammo has been lead free and experimented with a variety of alternatives, some harder on older shotgun barrels than others. Also there has been a big increase in rifle specialty ammo like copper and bronze tipped bullets. I still remember when BAFT tried to declare Chicom steel cored 7.62x39mm ammo as “cop killer” armor penetrating bullets, when they were just “less expensive” to manufacture than using lead.

I suspect that the ammo manufacturers will adjust nicely.

The lead bullet casting hobbists may have some shortages, but I suspect that the real shortages will be in things like: lead-stained glass windows, electronic’s soldering, batteries, fishing weights, sound proofing, environmental/water protection (lead lined/covered cables in the ocean), certain medicines, etc.

I know that environmental and anti-firearms groups tried at the federal and state levels to ban lead ammo and lead fishing weights, but failed each time. I wonder if this EPA smelter closure was an “end run.”

Who knows maybe I will soon be able to buy depleted uranium bullets for hunting? I do love unintended consequences.

[PowderMonkey]

Yup. And, it's not just the bullet component affected. EPA requirements for “Green” or “Lead free” ammunition includes the primer. It's the component in ammunition that makes it go “BANG!” when struck by a weapon's firing pin. Primers in standard ammunition use lead styphnate. It's extremely stable, giving ammunition a storage life exceeding 50 years. The lead free alternatives are less stable, and quickly degrade over time. They have a storage life of approximately six years or less. In reality, given the variances involved in production, marketing, distribution, and retail sale, your “Green” ammo may eventually have a shelf life of less than two years. Meanwhile, guess who's been buying up billions of rounds of “lead enriched” ammo, and storing it away for a rainy day. Care to guess why?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

It also has nothing to do with ammo.

Major ammo manufacturers don't use primary lead they use recycled lead. The supplies of secondary lead are quite extensive and this plant closure will have little effect on ammo manufacturing.

The only link I can get to through filters here at work for provenance is here:

Sierra Responds: How Will the Closure of the Lead Smelting Plant Affect Sierra Bullets?

[EagleUSA]

“..Meanwhile, guess who’s been buying up billions of rounds of “lead enriched” ammo, and storing it away for a rainy day. Care to guess why?”

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Yes, we know why. That represents the significance and reason behind the concern to begin with and the reason the non-state-run media jumped on it...

[Joe Brower]

However you cut it, the bottom line here is twofold:

1) This will remove around 110,000 tons of lead from the available annual stock. Supply and demand -- prices will go up and stay up.

2) Losing the capability to smelt our own ore here on CONUS is a major loss of a manufacturing capacity that, in time of conflict especially, a nation is foolish at best to forfeit.

My two cents.

[tet68]

I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the .22 shortage.
Ten dollars a box of 50 ?????

What ammo is used most to teach youngsters how to shoot??
No young shooters = Less shooters.

[Hugin]

I’m sure Canadian and Mexican smelters are celebrating.

[EagleUSA]

Your points are well made. This senseless and stupid act is the byproduct of blind and rabid lust for power and control over the country and its people. The secondary ramifications are of no concern to the short-term thinking of socialism, which, as we know, is ALWAYS eventually a total failure. Lead, as an ingredient, is used in a vast number of applications which are both generally commercial and used in systems for national defense.

The people behind this, all of them, are not interested in the country, but in ruling over its ashes.

[B4Ranch]

>>I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the .22 shortage.
Ten dollars a box of 50 ?????

What ammo is used most to teach youngsters how to shoot??
No young shooters = Less shooters.<<

Yes, the days of old are gone. Now we’ll have to train kids with laser beam weapons. Ammo is still a good financial investment. Perhaps better than before.

[rarestia]

Lead-acid batteries use lead plates. Newer electric cars use Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cad) or Lithium Ion (Li+) batteries.

This is not just a war on guns, it’s a war on the traditional automobile.

For the record, this smelter has gone through numerous management changes over the years due to accidents and insurance issues. They’re definitely a “polluter” in as much as a farm pollutes ground water with fertilizer, a shipyard with oil, and any other type of mine with whatever it’s producing. This is a direct offense against business more than anything else.

[Slings and Arrows]

No worries; it’s not like lead’s a strategically important metal. /s

[ZULU]

Based on the actions of OBAMA’S EPA, acting no doubt at his direction, he needs to be impeached and brought up on treason charges. This action clearly provides aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States.

[Gritty]

All those little kiddies have been eating lead paint and getting brain damaged so now we have to get rid of the lead!

[GailA]

They have forgotten the lessons of the Depression, and WW2, you have to be able to manufacture all your own products, or you will see shortages and soup lines.