Left-Wing firebrand Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez has ticked off hunters, conservationists, and 2A supporters alike with her uneducated and “junk science” stab at traditional lead ammo.
AOC was directing her comments to a sensible bipartisan bill — Protecting Access for Hunters and Anglers Act (H.R. 615) – which has been passed by the House and now on it’s way to the Senate. The Bill would require the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to provide “site-specific peer-reviewed scientific data that demonstrates traditional lead ammunition or fishing tackle is causing detrimental wildlife population impacts before prohibiting their use on federal lands.”
In her floor comments against the Bill, AOC continued to use a disproven left-wing accusation that traditional lead ammo and lead fishing tackle “poison everything.”
“H.R. 615 would prohibit the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service from prohibiting or regulating lead ammunition or tackle on federal lands and waters – even though alternatives do exist that do not poison everything in sight,” AOC said.
She continued, “Republicans on the Natural Resources Committee are putting forward an agenda brought to you by G.O.P. – guns, oil, and polluters.”
The problem with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s argument is that her so-called “facts” come from gun control activists and anti-hunting alarmists set on eliminating hunting and restricting gun use, data and science be damned. Her two-pronged assessment is wrong on both accounts.
Numerous studies have shown that requiring the use of alternative ammunition would put a significant cost barrier to participation in hunting and fishing on public lands. Alternative ammunition is, on average, 25 percent more expensive than traditional ammunition and less available to find on retail counters. That barrier would “price out” many hunters and anglers and decrease the excise tax funding paid by firearm and ammunition manufacturers they support. And it’s not just an American issue, either. Data from the European Shooting Sports Forum in 2021 revealed that if a near-total ban on lead ammunition were instituted there, approximately one in four hunters would completely stop participating in hunting.
And that right there is the ultimate goal of AOC and her ilk. Alternative ammunition is so fervently pushed by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and her anti-hunting, anti-gun allies because they know it would lead to dramatically fewer hunters. That’s their endgame.
The Congresswoman’s “poison everything in sight” remark is false as well. The facts are clear – traditional ammunition has been used in North America for over 400 years, and there has never been one case of an individual suffering lead poisoning due to the consumption of wild game taken with lead ammunition.
Despite what the uninformed and agenda-driven AOC spouts, the science is crystal clear: American wildlife populations are healthy, and American hunters – using traditional ammunition – have played the most significant role in that development.
Thankfully, cooler and more knowledgeable heads prevailed, and the Bill, sponsored by outdoor advocate and House Natural Resources Committee member Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), is moving on to the Senate.
Pushing to eliminate hunting and fishing on public lands – activities which are enjoyed by Americans who own the public lands – is anti-science, anti-hunting and anti-outdoors.