Though the Obama administration failed in pushing gun control legislation through Congress, the president isn’t abandoning a key aspect of his agenda just yet, according to Allen West. Obama is instead looking to the Environmental Protection Agency to limit the production of ammunition, which will lead to an increase in price, the former Florida representative says.
West took to his website to express his concerns about the Dec. 31 shuttering of the country’s last primary lead smelting plant, the Doe Run Lead Smelter in Herculaneum, Mo., as a result of intervention by the EPA.
“It seems that back door gun control is in full effect in the United States,” the Tea Partier wrote. “Why? Thanks to Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we can no longer smelt lead from ore in the United States.”
West goes on to note the history of the Doe Run Lead Smelter, which was built in 1892. Despite the plant’s long-running history, the EPA approached Doe Run officials regarding the smelter’s compliance with new air quality restrictions. Instead of paying more than $100 million to meet the EPA’s strict new guidelines and cover fines incurred as a result of the violations, Doe Run officials decided instead to close the plant. And because of the decision to shutter, 145 Doe Run employees and 73 contractors will be out of work.
“What this all means is that after December 2013, any ammunition that will be available to US citizens will have to be imported, which will surely increase the price and possibly come under government control,” West wrote regarding the consequences of Doe Run’s decision to close the plant. “It seems this is fully in concert with the US Military and Homeland Defense recent purchase of large quantities of ammunition.”
However, West fails to note that many ammunition manufacturers use lead created by secondary plants, of which there are many in the United States, The Blaze reported.
Additionally, ammunition manufacturers are hardly fazed by the plant’s closure.
“No impact upon any cast bullet manufacturing operation whatever. We do not use virgin lead, which is what Doe Run provided,” Brad Alpert, operations manager for the Missouri Bullet Company, told The Blaze. “We use foundry alloy from major foundries derived from scrap sources, purified and cleaned to purity.”
The lead produced at Doe Run is used in many products beyond ammunition, and will likely have an effect on those industries, though.
“Lead is used in numerous other products, including ammunition and construction materials, as well as to protect against radiation in medical and military applications. While most applications can use secondary lead, those applications that require primary lead will need to import the lead metal in the future,” Doe Run’s website states.
The Herculaneum smelter was the last primary lead smelter in the U.S., and many secondary plants recycle lead from products such as lead acid batters or spent ammunition components, the NRA-ILA reported.
Doe Run produces roughly 130,000 short tons of lead per year, satisfying 8 percent of the country’s annual demand and 1/6 of the world’s demand, according to Reuters.
Though the smelter’s closing is likely to have some effect on companies using lead, it is not likely to overwhelmingly hit the ammunition industry.
h/t The Right Scoop
(This piece has been updated.)
