2013-08-16

NRA vs non-lead ammo

8.15: co.pol/gun rights/NRA vs non-lead ammo:
re: sierraclub's Tell the NRA:
Stop your deceptive campaign against our wildlife
to: NRA (national rifle association)

non-lead is for Handloading but not Casting
. sorry about non-lead not being readily casted;
maybe we can guarantee that lead ammo can be owned
only for military (self-defense) purposes ?
. it also looks like some guns won't fit non-lead;
and so there will be some additional cost
to be a hunter in the new environment .
. in the following I show that
lead for food hunting is unhealthy;
and that your arguments against advocates are lacking .

lead for food hunting is unhealthy:
"Human consumers of wildlife killed with lead ammunition
may be exposed to health risks associated with
lead ingestion.
This hypothesis is based on published studies showing
elevated blood lead concentrations in
subsistence hunter populations,
retention of ammunition residues in
the tissues of hunter-killed animals,
and systemic, cognitive, and behavioral disorders
associated with human lead body burdens
once considered safe.
Our objective was to determine
the incidence and bioavailability
of lead bullet fragments in hunter-killed venison,
a widely-eaten food among hunters and their families.
We radiographed 30 eviscerated carcasses
of White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
shot by hunters with
standard lead-core, copper-jacketed bullets
under normal hunting conditions.
All carcasses showed metal fragments
(geometric mean = 136 fragments, range = 15–409)
and widespread fragment dispersion.
We took each carcass to a separate meat processor
and fluoroscopically scanned the resulting meat packages;
fluoroscopy revealed metal fragments in the
ground meat packages of 24 (80%) of the 30 deer;
32% of 234 ground meat packages
contained at least one fragment.
Fragments were identified as lead by ICP
in 93% of 27 samples.
Isotope ratios of lead in meat matched the ratios of bullets,
and differed from background lead in bone.
We fed fragment-containing venison to four pigs
to test bioavailability;
four controls received venison without fragments
from the same deer.
Mean blood lead concentrations in pigs
peaked at 2.29 µg/dL (maximum 3.8 µg/dL)
2 days following ingestion of fragment-containing venison,
significantly higher than the
0.63 µg/dL averaged by controls.
We conclude that people risk exposure to
bioavailable lead from bullet fragments
when they eat venison from deer killed with
standard lead-based rifle bullets
and processed under normal procedures.
At risk in the U.S. are some ten million
hunters, their families, and
low-income beneficiaries of venison donations"
problems with gun spec's fitting non-lead:
" no doubt that some of the unfounded claims about
how bullets made with lead can lead to health problems
drove some hunters to lead-free (monolithic) bullets, too.
But the real reason
lead-free bullets have become so popular
is because of their performance.
... The problem was the twist rate. According to the
Sierra Infinity Ballistics Program twist rate calculator,
I needed a twist rate that was at least 1:7 inches
 to stabilize the 1.178-inch long Nosler E-Tip at 3,200 fps."
. keep old guns for military use;
buy a new gun for hunting  .

huntfortruth.org doesn't have an argument:
"researchers have consistently designed studies to
validate this conclusion,
while unreservedly advocating for lead ammunition ban
regulations and legislation in the political forum.
But these scientist-advocates, who have
so readily conducted research in an attempt to
implicate lead ammunition,
have not exerted such efforts to research
the numerous alternative sources of lead
in the environment."
. that is not an effective argument;
because, advocates could be
tackling one lead source at a time;
rather, your argument should have pointed out
how the studies that implicate lead ammo
are actually invalid .
. you did mention that nobody has
"ever actually observed a condor
 feeding on hunter-killed carcasses or gut piles in the wild";

do you really doubt a scrap feeder
wouldn't find those scraps?
. if eating lead is shown to cause poisoning
-- and you aren't denying that  --
then what about the animals
that eat the hunter leftovers,
and then die to be eaten by scavenging birds?

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