Lead Ammunition Ban

[stretch]

Is anybody seeing this in any other states right now?

I see this as the thin edge of a wedge - hunting today, total ban tomorrow.
It's concerning. The current head of IF&W in Maine is a Democratically-appointed
woman originally from Massachusetts. She'd like to increase participation in outdoor
sports. This ain't the way to do it, methinks. Any of the other ammunition options
presented are MUCH more expensive than lead based ammunition.

They're not saying whether the lead is definitively from pellets, fishing sinkers,
or bullets. Lead sinkers and birdshot have been outlawed in Maine for years, but
there's a lot of that stuff still out there in waterways. And marine paint, of course,
is still lead-based.

The other question is, what happens to air rifle and .22 hunting? Or traditional
muzzleloading? Or older firearms whose barrels might not be up to a diet of harder copper?
As far as I can tell, there are no reasonable alternatives at the moment.

-Stretch


https://www.centralmaine.com/2020/01/16 ... le-deaths/

[Marvin S]

This stuff ? Nothing here yet.

[OldWin]

Gun control. Pure and simple.

[GunnyMack]

Then they need to outlaw copper pipes in your house too, the majority were soldered with 50/50 or even pure lead!

[765x53]

I've melted plenty of pure lead water pipes from the scrap yard. I'm sure they haven't all been replaced yet.

[GunnyMack]

Lead pipes were most often waste lines.

[765x53]

Lead pipes were most often waste lines.

They sure had a lot of hard water lime accumulation.

[AJMD429]

Lead SALTS (dissolved lead) are the dangerous things; metallic lead is harmless when ingested or implanted (of course the 'implanting' process itself can be lethal). Some does dissolve in the body, and especially can in the gut, so no, I wouldn't recommend eating lead, but the big toxicity would be soluble lead which I'm betting is far more likely with lead-based paint and already-dissolved lead ions entering waterways from wastewater, versus metal bullets.

Also - the bunches of pellets in shotshells that get into waterways would seem to me to be a million-fold more significant than the rifle bullets due to volume of lead out there, surface-area of smaller pellets versus one big chunk, and the fact that most bullets wind up in the ground or a tree trunk, if not in the game taken home, neither of which is a thing making the lead likely to end up ingested in much quantity by a large animal.

[fordwannabe]

I work for the state government and We do not let fact get in the way of a political cause.

[M. M. Wright]

The last lead smelter in the USA was closed last year due to over-regulation. They'll be able to regulate imports.

[Old No7]

Thanks for posting that; I'll have to watch for more on this.

They're not saying whether the lead is definitively from pellets, fishing sinkers,
or bullets. Lead sinkers and birdshot have been outlawed in Maine for years, but
there's a lot of that stuff still out there in waterways. And marine paint, of course,
is still lead-based.

Actually, that's not correct, per the boating associations I belong to:

"Historically, organotin compounds such as TBT (Tributyltin) were used in most high performance marine antifouling coatings until they were banned more than two decades ago. Since then, copper-based substitutes (typically cuprous oxide) have become the most widely used alternative.
* Copper is naturally occurring in water.
* Copper does not bioaccumulate in food chains.
* There are many sources of copper in the environment; and marine paints are not a major source.
* Copper is a metal so, although it cannot degrade, when released in the environment, it quickly “detoxifies” by binding to organic matter in the water."

I think you have a point though that if they can't get our guns -- then they'll come at us some other way (there has to be a military term to describe this...) where we're weaker and not expecting it, or not prepared for the fight.

Old No7

[fordwannabe]

There is aVERY succinct military phrase that fits most of what the left proposes .....but I would be banned from the site forever for even using the initials.
I would be so screwed if this state outlawed lead bullets. I love casting and finding good sources. Not to mention shooting 100 year old guns with the stuff.