The closure of the last lead smelter plant in America due to tightened Environmental Protection Agency rules will have an impact on ammunition supplies and costs, according to Gun Owners of America.
And it will leave nearly 220 people who worked directly or indirectly for the plant seeking new jobs.
In an interview with Newsmax, GOA legislative counsel Mike Hammond said the shuttering of Doe Run Company’s Herculaneum lead smelter plant “won’t shut off the production of bullets in America because [manufacturers] can get recycled lead from a lot of other plants.
“But combined with the government’s large purchases of ammunition, it will make it harder and more expensive to purchase ammunition,” Hammond said.
Some Second Amendment supporters see sinister motives on the part of the federal government in tightening the smelting regulations.
Former Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican, put a statement on his website about the Doe Run plant closure, calling it a “back-door gun control” move on the part of the Obama administration and the EPA to tighten ammunition supplies.
However, others in the gun-rights crowd downplay the effects of the closing.
Emily Miller, an award-winning writer recognized for her investigative work on Second Amendment issues and the author of “Emily Gets Her Gun … But Obama Wants to Take Yours,” told Newsmax that the smelter plant closure “will not have any effect on the supply or price of ammunition” and that bullets in America “are made with recycled lead, which is plentiful and at no risk of running low.”
