Poisonous Pastime - The Health Risks of Shooting Ranges.

VPC ^ | May 2001 Violence Policy Center and Environmental Working Group study Poisonous Pastime. | VPC Editorial Study

[vannrox]

Poisonous Pastime The Health Risks of Shooting Ranges and Lead to Children, Families, and the Environment Introduction: There Goes The Neighborhood The American gun industry is in big trouble. Hunting is fading as a sport. Guns are seen by most of the general public as either weapons of crime or dangerous toys owned only by a shrinking minority of Americans.a As a result, the civilian firearms market is becoming smaller and more concentrated.b The gun industry is keenly aware that it faces eventual extinction unless it can break out of this fatal cycle of fewer and fewer people owning more and more guns. The industry and its satellite organizations—the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), in particular—have developed a long-range "survival" strategy to pump up gun sales. One arm of this survival strategy—selling lethality, or killing power—is described in a number of Violence Policy Center books and reports. But a hitherto less well-documented arm of the industry strategy is that of building more shooting ranges to draw new customers—especially women and children—into what it euphemistically calls the "shooting sports." (Appendix A documents the means by which the industry is using tax dollars and co-opted federal officials to help underwrite this strategy.) As is so often the case, what is good for the gun industry is bad for the general public. Thus, as a Michigan hunter safety coordinator told a national shooting range symposium in 1990, shooting ranges are "like a waste disposal facility." The attitude most people have toward shooting ranges is "not in their neighborhood and definitely not next door."1 There is good reason to compare shooting ranges to garbage dumps. Part of this is because, in the understated words of ubiquitous gun industry defense lawyer Anne Kimball, "the activity of shooting is one that is controversial in our society."2 Shooting is indeed controversial in America because of our world-record levels of firearms death and injury.c But, as this report documents, shooting ranges actually are bad neighbors. They pollute the environment. They threaten public health, most severely among children—the gun industry's prime targets.d And they are backed by special-interest bullies like the NRA who use their lobbying clout to pass laws that block citizen recourse against unwelcome ranges and their influence with government agencies to cut back-room deals for special treatment. Spokesmen for the gun industry and the "shooting sports" publicly describe shooting ranges as places where skilled marksmen engage in disciplined and wholesome sport shooting. But when they talk privately among themselves, they discuss a less savory reality: lead poisoning and other types of environmental pollution such as excessive noise, dangerous novice shooters who barely know what they are doing, the "Rambo factor" (shooters intent on destroying targets and other objects by blasting away at high speed with powerful guns), suicides, unintentional deaths and injuries—even murders. These are truly neighbors that no one would want moving in next door. And "next door" is constantly getting closer and closer. As cities and suburbs expand into once-rural areas, new homeowners increasingly "complain of noise and safety," according to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service deputy director Conley Moffett.3 This report documents the problems that shooting ranges bring to those who use them, their families, their neighbors, and even to entire communities stuck with the considerable costs of cleaning up the hazards that abandoned ranges leave behind. It suggests ways that local citizens can organize and take action to: help keep these bad neighbors from moving in next door; get them out of the schools; and, inform communities of the hazards of existing ranges. a) A measure of the growing disfavor with which firearms are held among the general public may be seen in the reported decision of the Make-A-Wish Foundation to reverse policy and no longer grant wishes that involve firearms or other weapons. The Foundation underwrites the wishes of children with terminal illnesses. "Make-A-Wish Opts To Shun Future Gun, Hunt Requests," The New Gun Week, July 1, 2000, 11. b) Firearms ownership has declined and those who own guns typically own more than one. In the 1950s, about half of American households reported owning a firearm. This dropped to just 35 percent by 1994. Only one in six adults owns a handgun. In 1994, just 10 percent of firearms owners held 77 percent of the privately owned guns in America. Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig, Guns in America: Results of a Comprehensive National Survey on Firearms Ownership and Use, Summary Report (Washington, DC: Police Foundation, 1996). c) Since 1960, more than a million Americans have died in firearm homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings. In 1998 alone, a total of 30,708 Americans died from gun violence. Of these, 17,424 deaths were suicides, 12,102 were homicides, 866 were unintentional fatalities, and 316 were of an undetermined nature. "Deaths: Final Data for 1998," National Vital Statistics Report 48, no. 11 (2000). d) "Everyone past toddler age should get the chance to shoot," advises Guns & Ammo magazine in a special section, "Recreational Shooting: Fun for the Whole Family," May 2000, 52. Back to Table of Contents      All contents © 2001 Violence Policy Center   The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction policies and proposals. The Center examines the role of firearms in America, conducts research on firearms violence, and explores new ways to decrease firearm-related death and injury.

For the rest of the article please go < a href="http://www.vpc.org/studies/leadcont.htm">HERE.

[maxwell]

I live on a range so to speak - step out on the deck and let loose with whatever you've got 24/7/365.

Dude, I want your pad.

Nah, too far north... Texas is a big state-- there's gotta be a clone of your place somewheres in there...

[TigersEye]

This was found here They had no statistics on gun range safety but it would be logical to assume that shooting at a range is safer than hunting.

Outdoor Activity- Number of Participants - Annual Injuries - Injuries per 100,000 Participants

Football-------------------- 15,500,000--------------- 424,665----------------- 2,740

Basketball------------------ 28,200,000--------------- 716,182----------------- 2,540

Baseball-------------------- 33,200,000--------------- 404,468----------------- 1,218

Bicycling------------------- 64,500,000--------------- 604,566----------------- 937

Water Skiing---------------- 7,400,000---------------- 16,182------------------ 219

Swimming-------------------- 60,300,000--------------- 130,286----------------- 216

Fishing--------------------- 45,700,000--------------- 78,393------------------ 172

Hunting--------------------- 15,000,000--------------- 1,094------------------- 7

(These statistics were provided by the National Safety Council, Statistics Unit in Chicago for 1994-95. If you are interested in additional numbers, they can be contacted at 1-800-621-7615, extension 7307. The numbers for hunting are from 1995.

[dalereed]

I strongly feel that lead isn't an environmental hazard and in no way damages the brain.

I contend that some idiot professor with a federal grant came up with the "lead makes you brain dead" thesis by only TESTING DUMB KIDS! If he had tested the smartest he would have found just as much lead.

We chewed lead for gum durring WW2, food came packaged in lead foil, I started sanding lead on car bodies at the age of 8, have actually consumes a few gallons of leaded gas over the course of 40-50 years, and some of the smartest people of the 19th and 20th century drank all their water out of pure lead pipe.

[TigersEye]

Wow! I just noticed after posting those figures that fishing is over 24 times as dangerous as hunting. Come to think of it I have never snagged myself in the earlobe with a sharp gun. Nor have I fallen in a cold river trying to retreive a hand tied bullet wound around an overhanging branch.

[coloradan]

But when they talk privately among themselves, they discuss a less savory reality: lead poisoning

They ban steel core ammunition as "cop-killer" and then try to shut down shooting ranges because of lead exposure.

and other types of environmental pollution such as excessive noise,

Silencers and suppressors cost $200 and loss of privacy to own legally, and are a felony illegally. Would the VPC support decriminalizing suppressors?

dangerous novice shooters who barely know what they are doing,

Everyone is a beginner once. How does VPC propose that they learn safe firearms handling?

[oyez]

Lead does get a lot of bad press. I remember back 30 years ago all the screaming about hollering about childern eating lead paint. I thought the brain damage must be an existing condition if they were eating paint. Anyway, that ended the use of several great pigments. So now were are painting our houses twice as much as necessary.

The plus for lead is that its salts are so insoluble and unreactive they do stay outside the biosystem..

[chainsaw]

Shall we ***ONLY*** have windowless one-story buildings

We could have windows in the basement. I've never hear of any one falling out of a basement window and getting hurt.

[wizr]

Hold muh other banana clip.

Just had a GREAT MORNING in the fresh air poppin' ammo and listenin' to the echo off the hillside.

My buddy's 20 year old daughter went with us, and now knows that using a weapon SAFELY is a hell of a lot of fun. She also knows that she can protect herself.

I haven't had much practice lately, and thoroughly enjoyed the time spent.

Oh yeah. For all of those bleeding heart libs that are trying to protect me from myself; whether I eat right, don't smoke, don't drink, exercise, avoid sugar, fat, paint, asbestos, lead or any other things that are bad for me....I'm gonna die. How and when that happens is between me and God. So, get out of my way.

[goldstategop]

Josh Sugarman's Next Crusade TM: Ban Those Infernal Gun Ranges!!!

[Noslrac]

Ain't it fun thought...nearly killing yourself for a 3 dollar lure!

[dansangel]

We could have windows in the basement.

LOL!

Please don't give ***them*** any more ideas!!!

[Noslrac]

Though...for the grammar police

[tet68]

Unfortunately, the APD range which I get to shoot occasionally is actually quite pathetic, out door
no covered shooting.
And developers have built Condo's right up to the property
line, on a hill over looking the range.
The cost to build a new indoor range is estimated to be over a million dollars, not including the lead clean-up of the old
range.
Guess the new mayor and chief will have some taxing to do to pay for it.

Milsurp shooter Tet68 says,"Got to love those Finns".

[dansangel]

That's a bummer. The ONLY (and I mean ONLY) advantage to living in a large southern metropolitan area is the abundance of shooting ranges.

The area I came from in FL had none, but the population was only 15,000. I lived a brief time in the Dayton, OH area. There was only one outdoor, uncovered, poor excuse for a range that sounds similar to the one you patronize.

[wizr]

...and don't forget AMMO DAY, November 19th. Christmas is just around the corner. A cute little derringer for yer one an' only, more shotgun shells fer granny... aaahhh, ain't it a wunnerful season.

[SSN558]

So you'll know we shoot little .22s, half day for under $10.00

For a bigger kick, you might try one of the 8mm Mausers. I picked one up still in the cosmoline for $89. It costs about the same to shoot as a .22 if you buy belted 8mm machine gun ammo. They kick like a mule and aren't real accurate but cheap to go bang bang with.

[tet68]

Keep in mind this is the Atlanta Police Department range!
It's really sad, to see our officers not have a range with covered shooting area! Eventually it too will be closed due to encroachment. I mean the only moving target that they had was to pull a target on a clothsline! No popups, no target return, just sad.

[MediaMole]

We could have windows in the basement. I've never hear of any one falling out of a basement window and getting hurt.

But someone could get hurt falling into the basement.

[dsutah]

Hehehehe...You took the words right out of my mouth er-keyboard! Where's that 'Barf Alert'? There are piles of 'poo' all over this article! Gun ownership declining? Highest gun crime? Oh for crying out loud!! I wonder if this poor soul writing this only knew the 'real' truth? After 8 years of Clinton, the 2000 election, 9-11, the sniper attack, there have been more guns bought, and more guns stored and used, more women using, (even liberals!), gays (Pink Pistols), etc... than in the 1950's. There, now have I left anything out? (giggle)

[Madcelt]

LOL! I'll loan you the bulldozer. That way you can recycle them...lol!