New York Assembly Member Deborah J. Glick (D-Greenwich Village) has introduced Assembly Bill 703, which would ban the use of lead ammunition while hunting. The legislation will receive a hearing May 7 in the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee. The hearing is to take place at 11 a.m. in room 623 of the Legislative Office Building in Albany.
Take Action Today! New York sportsmen and women should contact their state assembly member and ask them to vote NO on AB 703. Members can contact their assembly member by using the Sportsmen’s Alliance’s Legislative Action Center.
“The anti-hunting lobby uses many strategies to eliminate hunting,” said Luke Houghton associate director of state services for Sportsmen’s Alliance. “Sometimes they use an outright ban on hunting, as Assembly Member Glick has already proposed this year in New York. But other times, the anti’s use burdensome regulations that drive up the cost of participation. That’s clearly the case with AB 703 since the science doesn’t support a ban on traditional ammunition.”
Shaky science that begins with a bias toward lead ammunition has pushed the narrative in headlines and among environmentalists and animal-rights activists that spent ammunition is to blame for the decline of scavengers, notably the California condor. The reality is, none of the science conclusively points to spent ammunition as the source of lead toxicosis.
In fact, per the Washington Times, emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act in 2014, which were buried and delayed by the Obama administration, found little change in the levels of lead in condor blood tests, despite a 2007 ban on lead ammunition in California’s condor zone.
Other studies extrapolate data of unrelated species and apply it to condors, which is actually noted in the study but is usually absent in news stories and propaganda disseminated by environmentalists and animal-rights organizations.
Further, according to the 2017 Annual Population Status released by the Department of Interior, of the 17 wild condor that died, lead toxicosis was the cause for five mortalities. Six deaths included drowning, electrocution and anti-coagulant poisoning. Since 1992, of the 290 condor deaths, only 76 have been confirmed as lead mortalities. Meanwhile, 123 deaths are unknown, with predation and electrocution accounting for another 45 deaths.
And, to despite fearmongering by anti-hunting groups about the use of traditional ammunition, multiple studies confirm there is no risk to human health from traditional ammunition.
Hunters rely on traditional ammunition because of its affordability and reliability in the field. If sportsmen are forced to buy more expensive ammunition, it will result in fewer hunters in the field because alternative ammo is substantially more expensive. Ironically, a ban on ammunition containing lead components would actually harm wildlife because the resulting decrease in hunter and shooting participation would mean far less funds available for wildlife conservation programs.
About the Sportsmen’s Alliance: The Sportsmen’s Alliance protects and defends America’s wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits – hunting, fishing and trapping – that generate the money to pay for them. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is responsible for public education, legal defense and research. Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs coordinated to provide the most complete defense capability possible. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.