EPA Making an End Run on the Second Amendment

In another end-run around the rule of law and the Constitution.  The Obama administration is floating a trial balloon in the form of discussions at the EPA on banning lead ammunition.  They are promulgating this under the ostensible reasoning that lead is a dangerous substance to the environment.  Never mind that the facts don’t support that lead from bullets is having an adverse affect on the health of animal populations.

If lead bullets are banned, then the obvious substitute is copper which is a whole lot more expensive.  More significantly, however, is the fact that copper jacketed rounds bullets made of materials other than lead are often classified as armor piercing – and are themselves banned.

The PETITION TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY TO BAN LEAD SHOT, BULLETS, AND FISHING SINKERS UNDER THE TOXIC SUBSTANCES CONTROL ACT has a photo of a dead Bald Eagle which supposedly perished due to lead poisoning, on the title page.   This is an obvious ploy to use our national symbol for propaganda purposes.

Who is to say that the “lead poisoning” that this eagle succumbed from wasn’t simply from being shot?  Let’s just say, we’re skeptical about the veracity of those promoting this tripe. (BTW, Bald Eagles are no longer on the endangered species list.)

H/T to Snowflakes in Hell for highlighting this scheme.

There is more information at the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which urges concerned citizens to:

1. Submit comment online to the EPA.

2. Contact Lisa Jackson directly to voice your opposition to the ban:

Lisa P. Jackson
Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20460
(202) 564-4700
Fax: (202) 501-1450
Email: jackson.lisa@epa.gov

They also provide some useful “ammunition” to use in your correspondence.

* There is no scientific evidence that the use of traditional ammunition is having an adverse impact on wildlife populations.

* Wildlife management is the proper jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the 50 state wildlife agencies.

* A 2008 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on blood lead levels of North Dakota hunters confirmed that consuming game harvested with traditional ammunition does not pose a human health risk.

* A ban on traditional ammunition would have a negative impact on wildlife conservation. The federal excise tax that manufacturers pay on the sale of the ammunition (11 percent) is a primary source of wildlife conservation funding. The bald eagle’s recovery, considered to be a great conservation success story, was made possible and funded by hunters using traditional ammunition – the very ammunition organizations like the CBD are now demonizing.

* Recent statistics from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service show that from 1981 to 2006 the number of breeding pairs of bald eagles in the United States increased 724 percent. And much like the bald eagle, raptor populations throughout the United States are soaring.

Update 8/27:

In a swift and unexpected decision, the Environmental Protection Agency today rejected a petition from environmental groups to ban the use of lead in bullets and shotgun shells, claiming it doesn’t have jurisdiction to weigh on the controversial Second Amendment issue. The decision came just hours after the Drudge Report posted stories from Washington Whispers and the Weekly Standard about how gun groups were fighting the lead bullet ban.