Democratic lawmakers in the Maryland General Assembly are seeking to ban the use of lead ammunition by hunters in the state. House Bill 741 and Senate Bill 634 would mandate that hunters of any type of game in Maryland utilize "non-toxic" ammunition by no later than July 1, 2029. "Non-toxic" ammunition is defined in the bills as ammo containing 1% or less lead content. The bills would also alter the definition of "hunt" to no longer exclude "the sport of fox chasing."
The Sportsmen's Alliance, an organization representing the interests of individual hunters, anglers, and trappers, opposes the bills. It warned of the economic damage such a ban would have in Maryland. "Hunters contribute $328 million to the economy, directly support over 4,100 jobs, and provide over $29 million to state and local taxes," the Alliance noted in a statement. "This is a loss the Old Line State cannot afford." The Maryland Senate Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee will hold a hearing on the Senate bill on March 4, 2025 at 1:00 PM.
Photo courtesy Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Those stats seem highly out of line, can you provide proof? Ex. "directly support over 4,100 jobs"!
ReplyDeleteIt is actually 4500 jobs and 35 million in revenue.Look it up.
DeleteYou provide even more suspect data still with no source, thus leading the reader to suggest these figures are fabricated.
Delete11:01 AM: The source was given in the article: The Sportsmen's Alliance. If you contact them, they can answer any questions you have regarding their statistics.
DeleteNon-toxic ammunition? Is that like a "mostly peaceful" riot?
ReplyDeleteVERY Hard to get non toxic. Bullets for for hunting anywhere in America.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Sportsmen's Alliance website, economic impact for every state to the legislative district level and federal...
ReplyDeletehttps://sportsmensalliance.org/reports/maryland
Lead, the most common metal in ammo, is toxic to animals and humans. LEARNING!
ReplyDeleteeasy to find on Maryland DNR. Hard to paste.
ReplyDeleteNon toxic ammo for hunters isn’t that an oxymoron. What’s it matter your killing the animal anyway. Dah!!
ReplyDeleteAmen
DeleteThis is he mentality of democrats!
DeleteNo every shot is a kill, and those that aren't windup polluting the environment with lead. Duh!
DeleteWow! Trying to eliminate firearms in the state of Maryland. Couldn’t be more obvious. Just one question. . . Are criminals who have guns be mandated to use none toxic ammunition or can they continue to kill each other with standard ammo ?
ReplyDeleteCouldnt ban them so we will try to financially ban them
ReplyDeleteHaven’t been able to use lead ammo on any state lands in NY state, hasn’t diminished hunting there. Lead shot is bad news for Waterfowl ingesting lead shot or animals eating carcasses with lead shot. Seems like a good environmental decision, not sure why hunters that supposedly care for the environment and the state of the outdoors find this so disturbing. Stop seeing conspiracies where there are none.
ReplyDeleteMaryland hunters don't want this because there are VERY limited options for non-lead ammo and what does exist can be about 4x more expensive. Many older guns are chambered for calibers where there are no lead ammo options rendering those guns useless. Central MD deer hunters have traditionally been forced to use shotguns shooting slugs because of concerns with population density and the range a rifle can shoot. There are no non-lead foster slugs on the market. For shotguns, many older guns cannot shoot non-lead steel shot because their barrel steel isn't hard enough as it was designed for soft lead. And for small game rimfire rifles life .22s, there are very few options and the ones that do exist are very ineffective as the bullets lack the velocity to expand upon impact. That means the bullet pass through the game leading animals running off to die a slow death.
DeleteHunters have been using lead for hundreds of years and I know of no data that shows illnesses from eating game.
This is a democratic solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
Lead is banned in Maryland already for waterfowl. The non lead metals that are legal are very expensive. The ban now is for all hunting . Federal land in Maryland is now imposing ban on lead to take effect in a year or so for all hunting of anything
ReplyDeleteThe totalitarians are just making up theories to ban items they don't like, mainly so they can "own the chuds".
ReplyDelete