Posted on 12/18/2013 12:43:22 PM PST by Sleeping Freeper
When the last bullet-producing lead smelter closes its doors on Dec. 31, it will mark a major victory for those who say lead-based ammunition pollutes the environment, but others warn 'green' bullets will cost more, drive up copper prices and do little to help conservation
The bid to ban lead bullets, seen by some as harmful to the environment, started slowly more than a decade ago. But with two dozen states, including California, banning bullets made of the soft, heavy metal, the lead bullet's epitaph was already being written when the federal government finished it off.
First, the military announced plans to phase out lead bullets by 2018.
Then the federal Environmental Protection Agency, citing emissions, ordered the shutdown of the Doe Run company's lead smelter in Herculaneum, Mo., by year's end.
Whether by state or federal regulation, or by market forces, lead bullets will be all but phased out within a few years in favor of so-called green bullets, experts say. While many believe that this will help the environment by keeping lead from contaminating groundwater, others say switching to copper-based bullets will cost hunters and sportsmen more and have little effect on the environment.
"Whatever the EPA's motivation when creating the new lead air quality standard, increasingly restrictive regulation of lead is likely to affect the production and cost of traditional ammunition," the National Rifle Association said in a statement
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I almost have my shoulder-fired death laser perfected.
I’ll adjust in 2030....when I run out of current inventory...
I predict massive amounts of up tick in bidness at wheel and front end alignment shops
So I suppose lead batteries will be next. This will be a blow to electric cars. Al Gore will make a fortune on his tin mines, the largest polluter in Tennessee. People can still steal tire weights to mold bullets though. Pigments and radiation shielding will suffer also. The EPA is trying to beat the death squad to killing us.
Well, they need to focus on something else, since we are having such a cold winter.
The next AMERICAN President can simply sign an Executive Order:
“All EPA Regulations established after 1 Jan. 2008 are null and void.”
>>does it really matter if its lead or steel that tears through the target?<<
Cost to consumers.
Lead USD/lb = $.98
Copper USD/lb = $3.30
Right, when we get rid of the damn communists Democrats and their insanity. Lead does not pollute and is much easier on the gun.
“This will be a blow to electric cars.”
Electric cars use nickel and lithium from China, not lead from the USA. Odd how this EPA action strengthens Chinese economic expansion, eh?
Would it be too much to ask environmentalists to precede prohibitions with actual scientific data? Silly question. Ban it first, fake the data later.
Fragmentation rounds can be made to make nastier holes than expanding projectiles. There is always a solution to ignorant liberal fascism.
Not a joke, they ( the totalatarian types )have been quietly working this for a decade.
An uranium.
Point is lead is not an environmental hazard if basic precautions are taken. Windmills have killed more eagles then lead bullets.
Mine will.
This will be a blow to electric cars.
Lead is used in some semiconductor stuff and an alloy for metal. China will have plenty of lead though.
Batteries missing from under hoods also!
Wasn’t Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders, from the Clinton Regime, working on safer bullets?
For those that shoot on outdoor “lead-free” DoD ranges, ask the range administrators these questions:
Is it true that sintered/compressed copper or iron makes it to the water table more quickly and with more deliterious effect than lead ever did? Lead, it turns out, is more stable in impact areas. it is only over waterfowl areas where lead shot actually enters the water does any leaching occur.
Is it true that reclamation of impact area (berms) is orders of magnitude more expensive with lead free ammunition than with lead?
Is it true that tungston is completely banned on DoD ranges (except where designated for AP performance testing/training)?
For the indoor ranges:
Is it true that airborne particulate copper is as or more harmfull than lead at lower concentrations?
And for the gungrabbing regulatory agencies, is it true that the EPA regs which closed the last smelter (put in place under W) make the US production of useable lead from ore so prohibitivly expensive that no operation could meet the reqs and turn a profit?
“Ore” this might be a ruse to get more folk purchasing ammunition, driving the price and the take from taxes up!
.02,
KYPD
aybe we could break into Ft Knox and steal all the gold plated lead there
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