lead bullet ban

From the Mossy Oak website.  These queerlafornia lunatics have completely lost their damn minds.

California Lead Bullet Ban in Place   July 21, 2008

On July 1, the first-ever  prohibition of the use of lead ammunition for hunters (outside of the waterfowl arena)  became effective in regions of California within the range of the endangered California condor.

 

Proponents of the legislation approved by the California Senate and General Assembly and subsequently signed into law late in 2007 contend that some of the foraging birds have suffered ill-effects after ingesting lead bullet fragments from the remains of animals left by hunters.

 

Throughout the debate, pro-hunting and shooting industry representatives maintained that the data supporting the measure was flawed and that condors—a scavenger known to ingest garbage and refuse—were not threatened to any enhanced degree by hunters’ use of lead bullets.

 

In an attempt to use the California ban to whip-up public sentiment and harm U.S. hunters and ammunition makers, the Humane Society of the United States, the country’s most powerful and well-heeled anti-hunting organization, launched a media campaign in June aimed at banning the production and sale of lead ammunition nationwide.

 

A statement released by HSUS president and CEO Wayne Pacelle called the use of lead bullets by hunters, “a prescription for slow agonizing deaths for wildlife.”

 

“Like asbestos, lead shot is a lethal and cruel pollutant that has no place in our modern society,” said Pacelle.

 

While it’s clear to national hunting and shooting sports organizations that the HSUS is primarily motivated by its anti-hunting objectives, they say that any success by lead-ban advocates stands to negatively impact an industry and end-users already reeling from skyrocketing ammunition prices.

 

During last year’s California debate, a study found that a ban on lead ammunition could drive up to 24 percent of the state’s hunters elsewhere or cause them to hunt less or stop hunting altogether.

 

The HSUS’ latest prescription to reduce the number of hunters in the U.S. is based on simple, supply-and-demand economics. By outlawing the primary substance used to craft bullets for centuries, they hope to hurt hunters and shooters by causing them to pay substantially more for ammunition—ultimately driving them away from hunting.