I don’t think I’d stop serving or eating wild game harvested with lead ammo (I’ve been using non-lead or “lead-safe” rifle ammo for about a year now), but I am paying attention as folks start to do some real research into the issue.

What would be a great service, both from a practical and a public relations perspective, would be for the hunting community, organizations (like RMEF, MDF, NSSF, NRA, etc.) and ammo manufacturers to pitch in on funding some of the research… and to do so publicly and loudly.

Arthur, there’s no need to be “torn” on the issue. Let’s get behind fact-finding. Once the truth is out there, we can act on it appropiately. That is what what will show that hunters ARE concerned about the environmnent and the wildlife in it. Let’s prove, once and for all, the correlation between lead ammunition and lead toxicity in wildlife populations. If it is hunters, we can take appropriate action. If not, then our name is cleared. It’s a winning proposition all around.

What we need to avoid are PR meltdowns like the lead-in-venison scare and the appearance that we’re (hunters) simply in denial of the possibility that our ammunition is at fault. If there’s a problem, let’s find it and fix it. If not, let’s prove it and move on.

At the very least, pressure ammunition manufacturers to offer more and more reasonably priced alternatives. I still think that as long as they think they have a fingernail-hold on lead, they will go kicking and screaming into non-lead options, and it’s hunters (as consumers) who will feel the pinch.

I do realize that lead poisoning is happening to these animals, but there are just so many different sources that this lead could be coming from, and I think that hunters are getting a bad rap because of it.

Lead has been used for many, many, years, and I just can’t understand why, all of a sudden now, it is becoming such an issue, and that hunters are ALL to blame.

I did like the even tone though, and the fact that he was weighing both sides of the issue.