Lead – mark this quote for later.

There is a piece in the Sunday Telegraph today about the findings of the Lead Ammunition Group.

There isn’t anything new in it for readers of this blog (The findings of the Lead Ammunition Group, 9 September 2015 ) except some quotes.

Those quotes from the chair of the group, the ex chief executive of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, John Swift, are very sensible – and indeed quite brave considering the flak he is getting from his former friends and colleagues in the shooting organisations.

But  do mark this quote from the chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, Tim Bonner, ‘There is very little clear, peer-reviewed evidence, of any problem to human health and the environment from lead ammunition that can’t be solved with clear advice on things such as how to butcher game meat properly.’

Let’s see what the forthcoming conference proceedings of a meeting held in Oxford with eminent scientists has to say on that subject – not even Mr Bonner’s best friends (I’m not one of them) would describe him as an eminent scientist.

And then let’s see what the report of the LAG itself looks like when it is published.

The last line of the Telegraph piece is this: ‘Shooting groups say 600,000 people in Britain shoot live quarry, clay pigeons or targets and that the sport supports 74,000 full time jobs and is worth £2 billion to the UK economy.’. Let’s take this figure at face value (although it is q bit dodgy I believe), but none of that would be at threat from a switch to non-toxic ammunition, and if non-toxic ammunition costs the shooter a little bit more (which is also arguable) then shooting will be worth even more to the UK economy won’t it?

 

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