OPPOSE PETITION TO BAN TRADITIONAL AMMUNITION

[Jeff Bryan]

Oppose Petition to Ban
Traditional Ammunition



All Gun Owners, Hunters and Shooters,

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) -- the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry -- urges you to contact the Environmental Protection Agency to oppose a petition filed August 3 by the extremist Center for Biological Diversity to ban traditional ammunition. Your right to choose the ammunition you hunt and shoot with is at stake.

Express your opposition by calling or e-mailing:

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

And

Steve Owens
Assistant Administrator, Prevention, Pesticides & Toxic Substances U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20460
(202) 564-2902
Fax: (202) 546-0801
Email: Owens.steve@epa.gov

Background:

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry, encourages all gun owners, hunters and shooters to oppose the petition filed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking to ban the use of traditional ammunition containing lead-core components. This ban would apply to ALL ammunition including ammunition used by target shooters.

Filed by several agenda-driven groups including the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), the petition erroneously claims that the use of traditional ammunition poses a danger to (1) wildlife, in particular raptors such as bald eagles, that may feed on entrails or unrecovered game left in the field and (2) that there is a human health risk from consuming game harvested using traditional ammunition. Also falsely alleged in the petition is that the use of traditional ammunition by hunters is inconsistent with the Toxic Substance Control Act of 1976 -- Congress expressly exempted ammunition from being regulated as a "toxic substance."

NSSF urges you to stress the following in your opposition:

There is no scientific evidence that the use of traditional ammunition is having an adverse impact on wildlife populations that would require restricting or banning the use of traditional ammunition beyond current limitations, such as the scientifically based restriction on waterfowl hunting.
Recent statistics from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service showing 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.
A ban on traditional ammunition would have a serious 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.

[splattersmith]

I agree. Time to write, not just think about it. Here is my 5 minute spurt e-mail.
...........

I am 63 years old, disabled and have few things I can still do. The use of ammunition I choose, is one such item. The idea of banning commercial or lead ammunition is ridiculous and just another "agenda" masked in environmental mysticism. There are no credible studies to indicate any animal species is threatened by the use of lead ammunition. Please notice lead has been used ever since China found gunpowder thousands of years ago. Europe has used it since the 1500's. There has NOT been one species ever that has been reduced by ingesting lead. NOT ONE. Now those that have separate, private agends come up with "studies" expressing harm. Anyone can purchase a study anywhere in the US. Just go to any trial and you will see a parade of so called "experts", qualified by the Court, testifying on opposite sides of any issue that comes up. Quoting "studies" is worth what you pay for them.

I would like to keep some semblance of my freedom. The banning of commercial ammunition is not only unwarranted but is power used for power's sake. American's are sick and tired of losing long cherished and well established freedoms through the actions of small groups of radicals with a private agenda. Please side with the 57 million hunters, target shooters and sportsmen that are the core of the United States and do not be used as a puppet tool of a very small, radical, vocal special interest group.

[Jeff Bryan]

Splatter,

Send that email the the EPA link/address listed in my post. They need to see it. Also, they are counting calls of people that call in and oppose the ban.

Sincerely,

Jeff