Interior Secretary Reverses Obama’s Lead Ammo Ban

Authors Industry News Jordan Michaels
Interior Secretary Reverses Obama’s Lead Ammo Ban

Zinke rides to work on his first day in style. (Photo: AP)

Last month, Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reversed former President Obama’s last-minute ban on the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on federal lands.

The reversal marked one of Zinke’s first moves in office, and gun rights groups are hopeful his decision is only the first in a long line of pro-gun, pro-hunter federal actions.

“Secretary Zinke’s rapid response to the previous administration’s parting shot on hunters, target shooters and anglers demonstrates the true friend and common sense solutions we can expect from the Department of the Interior,” said Lawrence G. Keane, the National Shootings Sports Foundation senior vice president and general counsel.

“The timing of the traditional ammunition ban on federal lands tells you everything you need to know about the decision. Likewise, the decisive action by Secretary Zinke tells you what you need to know and what we can expect from an Interior Secretary who himself is a hunter, angler and outdoor sportsman.”

Zinke’s order does not to mention the environmental (non)effects of lead ammunition and fishing tackle. Instead, he justifies his decision on the basis that the previous administration conducted no “significant communication, consultation, or coordination with affected stakeholders” before implementing the ban.

In other words, neither President Obama nor the previous Secretary of the Interior consulted sportsmen before making a decision that would affect millions of sportsmen nationwide.

Zinke plans to take a much different attitude.

During his confirmation hearing, he told senators in the Natural Resources Committee that for too long Washington, D.C., implemented policy changes without input from states or local authorities and often without regard to the consequences of those changes.

Since arriving in Washington on horseback, Zinke has made a number of moves that reinforce his commitment to listening and responding to hunters and fisherman.

In another order, Zinke instructs the Department of the Interior to seek recommendations from the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council and the Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council for expanding and enhancing hunting and fishing opportunities on federal public land.

Zinke also announced he will appoint to his senior staff a person whose sole responsibility will be to handle sportsmen’s issues.

In a statement, Ducks Unlimited CEO Dale Hall said Zinke’s early actions prove that sportsmen (and women) will once again have a voice in the Department of the Interior:

“Providing places for all Americans to hunt, fish, and recreate is vitally important,” said Hall, who was present for the order signings, “as hunters and anglers are North America’s greatest conservationists. I want to thank Secretary Zinke for his strong commitment and look forward to working with him in his new capacity at the Department of the Interior.”

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  • Homebrew April 16, 2017, 8:35 pm

    I can tell you from personal experience that a bird I had ingesting a large amount of lead showed no physical evidence of any kind from eating the lead. When I was 14 years old I had been shooting my Benjamin .22 pump and left an open half full can of approximately 250 Benjamin pellets setting on our back step. When I remembered them and went to retrieve them I found one of my Peacocks finishing them up.(I guess you could say he was having a heavy lunch) Five years later when I left for the Navy he was still alive and well.

  • Billy April 15, 2017, 2:17 pm

    Well jd my mom was shot in the head with a
    22 lead bullet fragmented into about 5 pieces were not removed but left her brain damaged and crippled much like a stroke victim. She lived for another 33 years and died from dehydration and starvation because she couldn’t bare to live anymore her quality of life was horrible, she made the decision to do it and had the follow through. The accident stemmed from someone drinking and poses sing a gun. It wasn’t lead poisoning she was very healthy and it took 13 days
    So you and your lead poisoning can SMA

  • elgavilansegoviano April 14, 2017, 7:38 pm

    ……….Hallelujah!!,………HewwwHawwwww!!!,………I Love America!!!………God Bless America!!,….

  • pecos pete April 14, 2017, 7:01 pm

    just goes to show the old axiom,”a lie repeated often enough will be accepted as fact”….

  • Mark Oheron April 14, 2017, 6:34 pm

    just another over reach by king buckwheat that has been over turned put the piece of libtard shitte in gitmo

  • Lee Heath April 14, 2017, 3:07 pm

    Thanks Ray

  • Altoid April 14, 2017, 8:31 am

    Looks like leftists are showing up on these comments boards too.

  • fr April 14, 2017, 8:30 am

    Lead cannot be absorbed into the body, only lead compounds can. There have been two serious sources of lead poisoning: leaded gasoline and paint, both of which are gone. The only people today getting lead poisoning from shooting are people at indoor ranges where they breathe the vapors caused by the lead styphnate in primers. People need to stop listening to the liberals’ anti-lead propaganda and really need to stop promulgating it. Pictures do not prove lead poisoning. Learn science and stop misleading people.

  • John April 14, 2017, 8:22 am

    Need to OPEN BACK UP THE LEAD plants here in the US. Warship our lad overseas let them process it then come back here at six times the price. But Americans back to work!!!!!!!!

  • MP April 14, 2017, 4:21 am

    As a sportsman, I’m dead set against this action.
    We have to be stewards of the land.
    I could show you photos of Bald Eagles killed by lead poisoning. If you don’t believe me, you probably don’t believe in science, either- and we’re gonna have a hard time having an adult discussion on the matter.

    • Thorsen April 14, 2017, 9:01 am

      And I can testify that after cleaning literally thousands of duck, goose and coot gizzards in my hunting lifetime that I never saw one with lead shot in it without an entry hole. Animals don’t get lead poisoning from ingestion, although that is the pretense used by the EPA to ban lead ammo. Scientific research is no more than targeted anecdotal evidence and the results are no better than other human experience. Put that in your pipe…

      • grossbeauty April 14, 2017, 8:49 pm

        Scientific research, a.k.a. the scientific method, is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.

        FTFY

    • Sense April 14, 2017, 9:02 am

      More bald eagles are killed by wind turbines than lead. Wind farms have a waiver for killing them but if you have a feather you get arrested. Thousands dead.

  • JD April 14, 2017, 3:16 am

    Lead Ammo ban should’ve stayed ban… Unless it’s only used for Target practice. Anyone that hunts with lead is not only an asshole but is an ignorant idiot… You can claim you will use that lead ammo to shoot and kill another person in self-defense but if someone survives a gun shot lead poisoning will be an issue… So I guess if you use Lead ammo, AIM THE HEAD.

    • Kyle Newman April 14, 2017, 7:25 am

      Yeah tell that to my great uncle who survived a bullet to the leg, which they never removed. Nvm you can’t because he died……at 103 years old. I guess that lead poisoning got him young. He probably could have made it to 120 if somebody had banned lead ammo back in the turn of the century.

      • John April 14, 2017, 8:28 am

        Now that’s what I am talking about!! Burned thousands of gallons of leaded gas & painted with thousands of gallons of lead based paint. That’s why we can’t have nothing nice, they ban all the products that work & will last!!! Paint today you are lucky to get 5 years on the outside of A house & what they call gas these days is destroying our motors!! Common since is what this country needs to go back to! Lung cancer is net A disease!! No one made you light up & smoke & alcoholism is not A diesease. No one made you drink!! Start accepting responsibility for YOUR own actions!!!!

        • Cliff April 14, 2017, 9:29 am

          Hey John. I’m not American (I’m Canadian) so this law doesn’t directly affect me, but it’s always nice to see someone who thinks like I do: “Start accepting responsibility for YOUR own actions!!!!”.

    • Dad April 14, 2017, 10:34 am

      Your the moron! You do not get lead poisoning from a bullet left inside you, I have one in my leg and my lead levels are non existent!! Think before you speak!!

    • MM April 14, 2017, 1:57 pm

      what a moron,lead’s been used forever,wildlife is till growing strong,where exactly is the problem,except to people like JD who like to beleive everything they here on the internet,LOL

      • John April 18, 2017, 3:47 am

        I think we should be more concerned about toxic sprays in the environment ,, Monsanto etc get free passes on this topic.

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