In a recent article on CNN.com, the most busted name in news is looking in to the issue of bans, both prospective and actual, on the use of lead ammo. It’s nice to know that when you need up to date, CNN will bring you news that you read about on blogs back in November. In all seriousness though, it’s disturbing to see this meme perpetuated in the legacy media, as the last thing we need right now with a potential AWB hanging around is for people to start trying to ban lead ammo “for the children.”
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources followed with its own study, which found that when lead bullets explode inside an animal
Note the hyperbolic word “explode”. As far as I know, no modern centerfire ammo “explodes” inside game. Fragments, perhaps, or expands, certainly, but explode in this case is a perfect example of a “weasel word” being used to scare the readers about the dangers of “lead in your deer.”
“The CDC study confirmed what hunters have known for centuries: Consuming game hunted with traditional [lead] ammunition has never been shown to pose a health risk to anyone,” he [Ted Novin, with NSSF] said.
NSSF is right on this one – lead ammo does not pose a health risk to people – people have been eating game harvested with traditional lead based projectiles for literally hundreds of years, with no documented ill effects. Calls for a ban on lead ammo are simply another way that the anti-gun lobby seeks to drive people out of shooting – as if ammo wasn’t expensive enough, they want all your ammo to be “earth friendly”.
First step, ban lead bullets………. then ban whatever they make them out of next……. Continue until unobtainium is the only material on the acceptable list.
IIRC Kali banned lead to protect condors. Lead was replaced with copper. Copper is harmful to condors.
Perhaps some of the, uh, chemists at CNN would like to try a tungsten shard implant instead of game meat taken with lead bullets.