Obama's Backdoor Ban on Ammunition  -- via the EPA

Without ammunition, guns are useless. Without lead, ammunition is ineffective and lead-free alternatives are more expensive. Thanks to new EPA regulations, the last lead smelting company in the country has been forced to close its doors.

Since 1892, the Doe Run Resources Corporation has served as the country’s primary lead refinery. Located in Southeast Missouri, within the state’s Lead Belt, Doe Run has developed in the largest lead producer in the Western World. Ammunition manufactures like Federal and Lake City (which also service the U.S. Military) deliberately set-up shop in the region in order to be close to the raw materials.

Thanks to the EPA’s new clean air regulations, Doe Run has been forced to close its doors. The EPA calls the shutdown simply a “business decision,” however given the fact that it would have cost the company over $100 million to comply with the regulations, there really was no other alternative.

The results are staggering. Despite being the world’s third-largest producer of lead ore, U.S. mines are now forced to transport their 444,000 metric tons of lead ore abroad for it to be refined.

This forces domestic ammunition manufacturers – servicing the world’s largest military and the majority of the world’s civilian gun owners – to pick up the tab on this international freight.

These new costs will inevitably become astronomical and will be passed on to the consumer.

Gun owners are well aware of the dangers of lead poisoning. But make no mistake: these new regulations aren’t about protecting the environment.  This is about forcing ammunition companies to import lead from abroad and increasing the burden on America’s already-encumbered gun owners.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).