NRA MOVES TO PROTECT HUNTERS FROM ARIZONA LAWSUIT THREATENING LEAD AMMO BAN

ON NOVEMBER 3, 2009. POSTED IN LATEST NEWS, LEAD AMMUNITION BAN PROPONENTS, LEGAL NEWS

Phoenix, AZ – As part of NRA’s continuing efforts to protect hunters from special interest groups seeking to eliminate the use of ammunition containing lead, attorneys for NRA filed paperwork in the United States District Court in Phoenix, Arizona on October 14, 2009. In it, NRA is asking the Court to allow it to intervene and to join in the lawsuit Center for Biological Diversity v. United States Bureau of Land Management et al (3:09-cv-08011-PCT-PGR). The court could rule on NRA’s intervention request as early as the end of this month.

The lawsuit, filed January 27, 2009, by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), alleges that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) are illegally mismanaging federal lands in Arizona because those agencies failed to consider the potential impact on local wildlife when they authorized activities like off-road vehicle use and livestock grazing. CBD’s lawsuit also claims that California condors in Arizona are becoming ill or dying as a result of eating lead in scavenged game shot by hunters using lead ammunition, and that BLM and FWS are violating the Endangered Species Act by allowing hunters to use lead ammunition while hunting.

NRA has been at the forefront of debunking the so-called “science” behind the theory that lead ammunition is responsible for condor illness. NRA most recently worked with experts, researchers, and attorneys in California to defeat proposed state hunting regulations based on the unproven condor-lead ammunition link. That success was based in large part on meticulous scientific reports prepared by experts working with NRA that exposed the deficiencies in the science, showing the theoretical link to be rooted in “psuedo-science,” as one California Fish and Game Commissioner described it.

Because of NRA’s previous experience and expertise with this issue in other states, and because there is no guarantee that either BLM or FWS will vigorously challenge the unproven assertions CBD is making about traditional ammunition, NRA is seeking to intervene in CBD’s lawsuit to protect its members’ interests.

NRA is especially interested in defending against CBD’s lawsuit because California condors were introduced to Arizona based, in large part, on express promises by FWS, among others, that the reintroduction of condors would not be allowed to impact hunting.

For a copy of the Motion to Intervene, CBD’s Opposition, and NRA’s Reply Brief, click here.