Lead ammunition advisory group to be formed

At the end of the first year a written progress report will be submitted to DEFRA and the FSA.

By Barnaby Dracup

Tuesday, 23 March 2010

A group is being brought together to advise DEFRA and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on issues connected with the use of lead ammunition.

Lead ammunition advisory group to be formed.
The working group will include representatives drawn from BASC, the Gun Trade Association, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Countryside Alliance, the RSPB, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, the Universities’ Federation for Animal Welfare, the Institute for Environmental Health, and the Food Standards Agency.

A statement from BASC reads: “The aim of the Lead Ammunition Group is to bring together stakeholders from all interested parties to address a wide range of topics concerning lead ammunition. The group is tasked with identifying any significant threats as well as any perceived threats that are not significant. The group is to advise on options for managing any risks, knowledge gaps and communication issues."

"It is essential that the sub-groups are as inclusive as possible and balanced and fair in their investigations and findings. At the end of the first year a written progress report will be submitted to DEFRA and the FSA. Our scope is limited to England but the devolved administrations will be kept informed and FSA has a UK-wide remit.”

The Lead Ammunition Group will be made up of representatives covering shooting, conservation, the gun trade, animal welfare, the rural economy, land use and food health and hygiene.

BASC’s John Swift said: “No political party has proposals to further limit the use of lead ammunition. This is an advisory process which will in due course feed into the formulation of future policy after consideration of all the evidence. DEFRA has initiated the process, but it will be led by stakeholders and we must all ensure that work goes forward on a sound footing.”

Do you think this is another step towards an all-out ban on lead ammunition? talk to other readers in the Shooting UK forums.

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Comments

Iasgair

Sat, 27th Mar 2010 09:42:45

If the "study" is looking for SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS caused by lead ammunition, none will be found. God knows every anti shooting organisation has been searching for this for the past 25 years WITHOUT SUCCESS. However, if "PERCEIVED" THREATS as is indicated, are included and allowed to form the basis of Projected Policy Proposals, then shooting sports and public ownership of SPORTING ARMS in the UK will end as soon as the politicians can get to work on the Legislative Acts needed to achieve that objective. The process of attempting to remove all guns from public ownership has been progressed by ALL politicinas, anti organisations, "bunny huggers" and the police, since 1964 when Roy Jenkins (at the time a Labour Minister, he moved to Liberal later)started the ball rolling towards this objective. However it is also a fact that no matter what measures have been enforced AGAINST LEGAL OWNERSHIP (and there have been many knee jerk reactions using excuses such as the Dunblane paedophile's massacre)the criminal use of firearms in all forms of crime from gang killings to robbery crimes has continued to escalate at an out of control rate of 'progress' SHOOTERS please note:- The BASC (under John Swift's franchised management) is not commonly called The British ANTI SHOOTING Club without good reason. Also, Dr Harradine's attendance at last year's North African World Conference which condemned LEAD AMUNITION, was no accident and neither was the way he voted on behalf of the 125,000 BASC members who pay his salary. 300 years of using LEAD as the most appropriate ballistic material for effective results WITHOUT SIDE EFFECTS, cannot be dismissed, OR CAN IT ???? Shooters so called REPRESENTATIVE BODIES were established to look after THE BEST INTERESTS of members, history proves that they have done anything but and still members pay a 10x annual subscription for a THIRD PARTY INSURANCE cover which actually costs just a few few pounds. No PEER REVIEWED SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE has ever been documented here in the UK which conclusively proves that SPENT LEAD AMMUNITION has ever been a proven, significant danger to:- THE ENVIRONMENT, HUMAN BEINGS or WILDLIFE. Set against such a background "PERCEIVED THREATS" will be the ONLY basis on which a case against SPENT LEAD AMMUNITION could ever be brought at this time. Watch closely to witness lies and misinformation being used by EVERYBODY INVOLVED with this so called "objectice study". At the first sign of any British shooting organisation supporting a case against lead ammunition RESIGN YOUR MEMBERSHIP IMMEDIATELY it is the only weapon you have to fight back with.

Pierpaolo

Wed, 24th Mar 2010 13:50:11

An all-out lead ban will not work. It will be the end of everything. Just look at what happened in other northern european countries, please. I bet many of them would pay in gold to have lead back..... In my opinion, in 5 centuries of shooting lead has never been a real problem. There are other greater threats to nature than lead. Maybe those environmentalists should look better first into their homes and then all around them. In many years of practice I have never seen a duck poisoned by lead. Instead I have seen lots of ducks wounded by steel pellets, never recovered and dispatched. Furthermore I have never seen a true scientific proof of saturnism among ducks. Stuffing ducks with lead pellets by brute force to prove saturnism has no scientific value. It simply doesn't happen in Nature. Best regards, P.

Kevin

Wed, 24th Mar 2010 11:03:01

I can understand sort of what they mean. Lead is a toxic substance in any quantity... But generations of my family have been shooting animals for food, using air rifles, shotguns and rifles, all with lead shot/pellets/bullets. There hasn't ever been a side affect from this lifestyle... e.g. no lead poisoning. I do think its just another plot towards the banning of all lead ammunition, which personally I think is a stupid idea. Besides, what about many shotguns for example, that can't safely use steel shot, what are they meant to use for clay shooting? I know there are Lead alternatives such as Bismuth, TMX, ITM, Hevishot, etc, but they are all frighteningly expensive compared to steel and lead. Thing is though, is if they ban lead for shooting, except for clay shooting, then they are contradicting themselves... Personally, cant they just leave shooting as it is? There are already enough restrictions...