Anti-Gun Pissing Match on the Horizon?
A buddy recently sent a link my way regarding the movement to ban lead from ammunition, or at least ammunition used in hunting. You can find that here.
Interesting topic, and one that allows me to remove my gun nut hat for a minute and spectate.
The basic premise is that lead is bad for human consumption so therefore we must remove it from the environment in every manner possible. So, a group wants to ban lead bullets for hunting.
This actually makes a bit of sense, and it’s already been done to some extent. There are federal regulations stating that you may not use lead shot when hunting birds which have existed, I think, and do not quote me on this, from 1991. The only real problem with this is that steel shot is more expensive than lead and it’s less dense which means a change in pellet size to gain the same effectiveness in killing.
I have no qualms with that law. I might think it’s silly, or pointless, but it’s not worth my time defending using lead shot for bird hunting.
Now, for every other kind of hunting, things get interesting. In the above linked article they want hunters to drop lead for, and I quote “copper, bismuth, tungsten, steel, tin, and other alloys”. That right there folks is why I want to sit back and watch the firework show between the anti-hunting group and the anti-gun group.
See, lead works real well as a bullet because it’s cheap, and because it’s soft. Well, soft as far as metals go. When lead meets flesh at high velocities it deforms and makes all manner of nasty wounds. Bonus points if you put a dimple in the front that makes it a hollow point as it will deform even more, mushroom out, and create a greater wound channel.
Now, taking the above list of metals, let’s run through them. Copper is used to encase lead bullets because it’s harder than lead and it doesn’t leave as much crap in our barrels. That thin little copper jacket is all we need. If we made our bullets of out copper they’d be harder than lead and lack in that whole deformity/damage issue.
Bismuth? I can’t speak to it’s properties — not familiar enough with it and I’ll admit that.
Tungsten and steel, now there’s a metal I know about when it comes to bullets and which makes the issue really interesting. They’re used fairly often in bullets, just not in bullets used for hunting. They are key components in armor piercing bullets!
Yes, folks, for years the anti-gun crowd has jumped up and down on their soap box that we don’t need armor piercing bullets because our right to keep and bear arms only applies to hunting, yet, the only bullets suitable to the environmental crowd are armor piercing bullets.
Yes, I skipped the other metals — the fact of the matter is that lead wins when it comes to bullets because its dense and because it’s soft. No other metal is as soft as lead. Feel free to bite down on random metal objects if you think that I’m wrong.
Of course, no pissing match will ensue between the groups. One will work to get anything but lead using in hunting and the other will work to prevent anything other than lead in bullet compositions.
The end result will be a blow to gun owners and freedom in general if it succeeeds, but it’s fun to point out the logical disconnect between the groups until then.