Slow Facts – by Rob MorseBesides the low-information urban voter, California hunters face three challenges new challenges. First, lead ammunition might be outlawed in California. The second challenge is that California has a long dry season and a no-burn wildfire policy for wild lands and mixed use terrain. Finally, non-lead ammunition can spark fires. Put those three things together and California hunters need to their problems before California Assembly Bill 711 becomes law. The bill banning lead ammunition has passed the State Senate but has only had its first reading in the California State assembly.
Anti-gun groups said they want to outlaw lead ammunition for a long time. Their current excuse is the protected species of the California condor. The environmental study is deeply flawed, but that doesn’t matter to our legislators.
- Online resource exposes truth about lead ammo ban efforts (Video) http://www.examiner.com/article/online-resource-exposes-truth-about-lead-ammo-ban-efforts
- The Truth Behind The Assault On Traditional Lead Ammunition http://www.huntfortruth.org/
- The Curse of the Lead Bullet http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/condors-and-lead-bullets/
- California lead ammo hunting ban ignites controversy http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/politics&id=9189388
The flawed environmental study fulfilled its primary purpose of providing political cover for more restrictive gun laws. In practice, it is more cultural cleansing of gun owners from California. This ammunition prohibition is a statewide ban even though lead ammunition has been outlawed in condor areas for the last five years. Hunters in California are told to use non-lead ammunition as an alternative. This may surprise some politicians, but few of us can afford silver bullets. Not only is non-lead ammunition unavailable, in some cases it is illegal under some interpretations of federal law. The original intent of the federal law was to outlaw hardened bullets designed to penetrate armor and body armor. Now the federal law outlaws machined brass bullets and some steel cored bullets.
The second link in the upcoming ammunition firestorm is the California policy against wildfire. In theory we learned that fire is a requirement for a healthy environment. In practice it is never the right time to set a wildfire or let a wildfire burn. Environmental lawyers and the government’s own risk management specialists will delay any controlled burn for years. They will also attribute liability and loss of property to the fire service unless every fire is fought with all available assets.
The third link in this disastrous chain is that the impact of a non-lead bullet can start a fire in dry brush. This includes both solid copper and copper jacketed-steel-core bullets. This isn’t a Hollywood special effect. The deformation of the bullet at impact is enough to produce temperatures above the ignition point for some fuels. The fire research service used armor plate and dried moss, but a rock and dry grass can start a fire also.
This leaves hunters in California shooting blanks. It also leaves the California condors dying of whatever was killing them in the first place, and it leaves California wildfires still burning. Nothing has changed except there will be far fewer gun owners in California. The time to stop this cultural cleansing against gun owners is now. Call the California Legislature today.
Things are as bad or worse for the rest of California gun owners. These bills are in the California Senate Public Safety committee today-
SB 47 classifies any rifle with a detachable magazine, including rim fire calibers, as an assault weapon.
SB 108 makes it a crime for a gun to be unlocked when the owner is not at home.
SB 374 bans the purchase of all semi-automatic rifles and forcees registration of all existing semi-automatic rifles. Owners must submit fingerprints to California DOJ. Previously legal firearms with bullet buttons or locked-magazines become “assault weapons”.
SB 396 criminalizes the possession of a magazine capable of holding over 10 rounds. (How many 22 cartridges can you pour into a standard 8 round 45 caliber magazine?)
SB 567 classifies a weapon for which shot shell-type ammunition exists as a “shotgun”. The bill includes rifled bores as shotguns and removes the requirement that a shotgun be fired from the shoulder.
SB 683 requires that all firearms buyers have a “gun safety certificate” issued by the state.
SB 755 amends the list of criminal offenses that prohibit gun ownership. It adds hazing, transferring a firearm other than through a FFL, giving ammunition to a minor, carrying ammunition onto school grounds, and others.
Welcome to totalitarian California. Please give the left coast a little help and contact the California Senate Public Safety Committee here. http://spsf.senate.ca.gov/ Please be polite. The legislators ignore me when I try to write them from their website because I don’t live in their district. I had to send a FAX, but here is the Cal NRA one click link to contact legislators.
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Rob
Since shotshell type ammo exists for most handguns, wouldn’t this make most handguns illegal shotguns because of the short barrels?
This state REALLY sucks.