Arizona Game and Fish to Entertain California-style Lunacy

I received the following email from the NRA Institute for Legislative Action:

Arizona Game and Fish Commission to Discuss Lead Ammunition and Shooting Range Issues!Commission Discussing Issues Concerning Gun Owners and Hunters!On Friday, January 18th, 2008, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission (AZGFC) will be holding a public meeting to discuss issues concerning gun owners and hunters. Of greatest interest are briefings on shooting range funding and development (Item #3) as well as general issues associated with lead from spent ammunition (Item #10). Since last year, when California passed its unjustified ban on lead ammunition for all hunting in condor range, the NRA has been keeping a close eye on the same issue in Arizona. The Grand Canyon State has an experimental population of condors and some extremists in Arizona are advocating for a California-style ban! While the Commission agenda does not specifically mention a potential ban in Item #10, gun owners and hunters must be vigilant to ensure that this bad public policy does not spread!Please take the time and attend the AZGFC meeting and make your voice heard on these important issues. The meeting will be held at the Arizona Game and Fish Department at 5000 W. Carefree Highway, Phoenix, AZ, beginning at 8:00 a.m. A copy of the agenda can be found on the Commission's website at http://www.azgfd.gov/inside_azgfd/meeting_agenda.shtml

I don't buy into this idea that Condors are bothered by lead ammunition; I think this is a horrible false assumption to take to an unsupportable conclusion that lead ammunition should be restricted or banned for use by hunters that pursue game in areas where Condors are known to exist.


Just so we all are on the same page, the left image is what the controversy is about. A vulture. It does the same thing as rats, coyotes, crows, ravens, maggots and worms (along with countless other species I haven't included). It eats dead animals.

Condors are present in Arizona in the northwest corner of the state, stretching up into the Colorado River Basin and into the Grand Canyon. If you hunt anywhere around Flagstaff, north of Prescott, or over towards Kingman, you can be affected by regulation concerning the Condor population in Arizona. This can affect thousands of elk, deer, antelope, javelina, game bird and varmint hunters from all corners of the state.

Due to the wide range of game that cohabitates in land where the Condor has been reintroduced, an ammunition ban can have the power to regulate the use of calibers ranging all the way in power from the large game calibers of the old west like .45/70 or the newer .338 Winchester Magnum, to the more commonly used .30-06 or 7mm Remington Magnum, to popular coyote and javelina cartridges like the .223 Remington or .22-250 or even the .22LR rimfire you used to hunt cottontails.

Gun Owners of Arizona, we can't allow this idea to gather any momentum at all. There are two reasons that we need to oppose any regulation of hunting ammunition in our state.

1. A bullet constructed of lead, by itself, does not necessarily imply contamination of a shot game animal for the Condor to scavenge. Bullet construction has an enormous amount of influence in the amount of lead left in an unretrieved carcass.
2. Condors are designated as an experimental and non-essential species in Arizona.

It is my goal to demonstrate that both large game and varmint hunting can be successfully accomplished with bullets constructed of lead without adversely affecting the unretrieved carcasses that a Condor might feed upon.