Reader’s view: There’s no reason to abandon lead ammo

The News Tribune’s Oct. 28 article, “Few deer hunters switching to copper bullets,” covered several points we with the National Shooting Sports Foundation would dispute.

To begin, hunters and their families have been eating venison for many generations without any evidence of long-term harm caused by traditional ammunition. Alternative ammunition for big-game hunting is much more costly and makes up only 1 percent of all ammunition sold nationwide. To mandate hunters use non-traditional ammunition would hit them hard financially, even keeping them out of the field. Because federal taxes on their ammunition purchases fund state wildlife conservation, this would be counterproductive.

We all celebrate, hunters included, the return to their natural habitat of large numbers of American bald eagles and other raptors. Their numbers are soaring in Minnesota and elsewhere, paid for largely by the 11 percent excise tax on the ammunition hunters buy.

Hunters know success when they see it and should not be viewed as the problem. Let them choose what ammunition to use. Hunters, not researchers, are the original conservationists.

Lawrence G. Keane

Newtown, Conn.

The writer is senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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