Second Amendment Sports News

This article was taken from the Sacramento Bee newspaper, referred to from the NSSF newletter. This news is not CONFIRMED, but an issue of concern for shooters, nonetheless.

Wider lead ban in condor range
State commission prohibits another type of ammunition to stop poisonings.
By Matt Weiser - mweiser@sacbee.com

Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, December 8, 2007
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A4

State officials on Friday expanded a ban on toxic lead ammunition to protect the California condor, a rare bird that repeatedly has been poisoned and died after eating dead animals left behind by hunters.

Meeting in Sacramento, the California Fish and Game Commission took steps to implement AB 821, a controversial bill by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, that was adopted in October. And the commission went further, adding more ammunition to the banned list to effectively cover more kinds of hunting.

The Nava bill restricted lead bullets in centerfire ammunition typically used for hunting big game, such as deer, elk and pig. The commission added rimfire ammunition, such as the popular .22-caliber, and bullets used in black-powder guns and calibers that are commercially obsolete.

Starting July 1, the new rules ban the use and possession of bullets in condor country containing more than 1 percent lead, a threshold that ammunition manufacturers said was realistic. A violation by a hunter is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.

Nonlead ammo that meets the 1 percent standard is already available for centerfire calibers. It is slightly more expensive but is considered ballistically superior to lead ammunition.

No alternatives are yet available for rimfire cartridges, meaning the industry will need to develop new products.

"This issue is fundamentally about removing lead from the condor's food chain and diet, and that is why I am in support," said Commissioner Michael Sutton. "If we leave any sources of lead ammo in the condor food chain, we will be in violation of the spirit of what we're trying to do."

The commission voted 3-1 to adopt the rules. It did not expand the geographic area governed by the Nava bill, a V-shaped swath of land between San Jose and Los Angeles that covers about one-fifth of the state.

The dissenting vote came from Commissioner Jim Kellogg. He supported the overall intent, but wanted to exempt rimfire ammunition with the condition that these hunters dispose of their carcasses.

"Given the opportunity, hunters will work with us and they will pick up their carcasses," Kellogg said. "I think we just have to take smaller steps and not do it all at once."

The endangered condor was nearly driven to extinction by hunting and the effects of another man-made toxin, the pesticide DDT. With those risks diminished, a leading threat to its survival today is lead ammunition.

The condor is a scavenger that primarily feeds on dead animals. Many cases have been documented in which condors died or became ill after ingesting lead bullets or residue from carcasses left behind or lost in the wild by hunters.

The commission's ruling, unlike the Nava bill, effectively governs all rifle and pistol ammunition within condor country. It extends lead limits to the hunting of nongame animals such as rodents, coyotes and wild pigs killed as a nuisance.

Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said one area still unaddressed is lead pellets in shotgun shells used for hunting upland game birds. Yet he was pleased by Friday's action.

"This is significant in that it covers almost all the hunting activity that could result in lead exposure for condors," Miller said.

Several hunting and shooting groups protested the rules, claiming there is inadequate proof that a lead ban will benefit condors.

Ed Worley, a National Rifle Association lobbyist, also objected to the ban on simple possession of lead bullets in condor range.

"You're talking about opening up a huge Pandora's box for hunters who happen to inadvertently carry lead ammunition with them," said Worley.

The issue reached a flashpoint in September when Commissioner R. Judd Hanna resigned his post. He said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked him to quit after 34 Republican lawmakers complained in a letter that Hanna had distributed his own research on the lead issue to fellow commissioners.

Hanna, who supported the lead ban, claimed his ouster was a result of pressure by the NRA.

The commission gave Hanna an honorary resolution on Thursday that quotes renowned conservationist and hunter Aldo Leopold: "A thing is right when it tends to conserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it does otherwise."