F&G Commission to Consider Banning Lead Ammo!

Posted on 02-01-2007

Fish and Game Commission to Consider Banning all Lead ammo in Condor areas!

On Friday, February 2, 2007, The California Fish and Game Commission will hear proposals to deal with lead poisoning of the California Condor.

As background, anti-hunting environmentalists would love nothing more than to see all hunting ended in California and it seems that they have found a vehicle to achieve their goal.

Two years ago Santa Barbara Democrat Assemblyman Pedro Nava sponsored AB 1002 to ban the use of lead ammunition in California Condor habitat areas. The bill was defeated because it was obvious the evidence and reasoning was not sound.

Even though it was obvious he did not have the evidence to back his claims, it took the combined efforts of several pro-gun organizations, including GOC, to stop his bill.

Assemblyman Nava introduced the same legislation last year with “new evidence” of what appeared to be scientific research presented by people with scientific titles to lend credence to their claims. The new bill died in committee.

Now, a lawsuit has been filed by a who’s who of the ultra-left, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Center for Biological Diversity.

They are suing the California Department of Fish and Game to stop the use of lead bullets and shot pellets containing lead for hunting in the California Condor range, which is a significant portion of the state.

The anti-gunners know that banning lead ammunition would force the use of ammo that is as much as three to four times more expensive than conventional ammunition, which would make hunting or sport shooting just that much more expensive for the average person or family.

Here are the facts:

1. For most of the year, big game hunting is closed! Big game seasons are open only for a few months in the fall. All water fowl is now hunted with "non-lead" ammo because of federal law so dead ducks cannot be causing the problem. So how can lead be killing Condors year-round? There is little to no carrion generated in the off-hunting season.

2. There is only ONE manufacturer of "non-lead" ammo for big game hunting -- Barnes Bullets.

3. Those bullets will kill anything that ingests them because of their performance characteristics. They retain almost 100% of their weight and turn into razor blades. NO studies have been conducted to see what the impacts will be of using this type of ammo for hunting.

4. The increased costs will drive hunters out of California and the Dept. of Fish and Game will lose millions of dollars in hunting license revenues AND millions of dollars in Federal Pittman-Robertson funds returned to the state from the purchase of guns and ammo. These funds go directly to the DFG.

5. It is no secret that in a most cases, bullets of all kinds pass completely through animals and are never recovered! So how are the Condors finding the bullets and eating them? Most big game hunters have never recovered a bullet from the body of an animal they have shot. The animals have an entrance wound and an exit wound where the bullets have passed completely through.

6. Since virtually all hunters know these things, if the DFG recommends a lead ammo ban of any type versus a voluntary program of advising hunters to either bury their gut piles OR use "non lead" ammo, the California Department of Fish and Game will be looked upon as being anti-hunting. There is nothing anybody can do to change that.

7. The lawsuit was filed before the DFG and the hunting communities were allowed to take voluntary measures to mitigate this situation.

This will be a massively major issue for hunters in California when they find out that they either have to use Barnes Bullets or not hunt at all from Fresno south to the Mexican border.

Gun Owners of California is working hard to fight this thinly veiled attempt to ban hunting in California. Just imaging what’s next if the anti’s find that Condors are dieing from internal bleeding because they are ingesting “non lead” ammo. Their next step is to call for a complete ban on all hunting…

Gun Owners of California will keep you informed.

Sam Paredes - Executive Director