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Shooting Ranges And Public Health
Published Monday, December 15, 2003
Gun range owners do not have a constitutional right to poison our land and water with lead, despite what lobbyists say. One of the effects of prolonged exposure to lead, a toxic substance, is said to be reduced intelligence. On the basis of the evidence, then, we can only conclude that state Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, must have been spending too much time hanging around gun ranges -- breathing deeply and perhaps drinking the well water.
Baxley, a funeral director in private life, has determined that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution affords gun range owners the right to pollute the soil, air and groundwater with impunity. And he wants to pass a state law to stop the the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from enforcing pollution regulations against any of Florida's 400 or so shooting ranges.
"It is never easy to defend freedom," Baxley sighs, on defending his sop to the National Rifle Association.
Perhaps another aftereffect of lead poisoning is a deeply ingrained sense of paranoia. In the fever-dreams of Baxley and his NRA supporters, the danger of toxic pollution isn't the real threat to the public health and welfare. Rather, the real threat is the "heavy hand of government" reaching out to punish law-abiding gun range owners.
Why? Well, the answer is obvious. Because environmental enforcers have a "politically motivated agenda" to punish gun use, insists NRA Florida lobbyist Marion Hammer, a former president of the national organization.
These would be the same environmental enforcers who work for Gov. Jeb Bush, a politician who is anything but anti-gun. They are the same enforcers who, it's claimed by environmentalists, sometimes have to be prodded into enforcing Florida's pollution laws against industrialists, developers and agribusiness, let alone against gun range operators.
This lead-poisoners-protection bill came about because a gun range in Pinellas County is being sued by its next-door neighbor, which just happens to be the Southwest Florida Water Management District. The district thinks that a small lake, which is part of its environmental education center for children, is possibly being contaminated by lead-laced water runoff from the gun range.
"Children fish on this lake and we've been finding elevated lead levels in fish," William Bilenky, attorney for the district, said this week. "We're not demonizing gun ranges, we just happen to own property next door to one."
The notion that the DEP is engaged in some sort of anti-gun vendetta is not supported by the evidence. Nonetheless, the House Judiciary Committee approved Baxley's lead-poisoners-relief-act last week. It is likely to be one of the first bills to come before the full House when the 2004 regular session begins next spring.
The "public purpose" being served by Baxley's bill is crystal clear: The NRA demands it, and the Florida Legislature is a stooge for the gun lobby. If the state is worried about kids getting lead poisoning, then the answer is obvious: Make the kids stop eating poisoned fish.
Pop quiz:
Question: Why is lead shot no longer used by bird hunters?
Answer: Because lead is a toxic substance that contaminates water, soil and air.
Question: What part of the Second Amendment grants gun range owners the right to poison the water, the fish and our children?
Answer: Ask Rep. Baxley.
This bill is ridiculous. We just hope, for the sake of Florida's children and other living things, that the entire membership of the Legislature hasn't similarly been impaired by the intelligence-lowering effect of lead poisoning.
Shooting Ranges And Public Health
Published Monday, December 15, 2003
Gun range owners do not have a constitutional right to poison our land and water with lead, despite what lobbyists say. One of the effects of prolonged exposure to lead, a toxic substance, is said to be reduced intelligence. On the basis of the evidence, then, we can only conclude that state Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, must have been spending too much time hanging around gun ranges -- breathing deeply and perhaps drinking the well water.
Baxley, a funeral director in private life, has determined that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution affords gun range owners the right to pollute the soil, air and groundwater with impunity. And he wants to pass a state law to stop the the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from enforcing pollution regulations against any of Florida's 400 or so shooting ranges.
"It is never easy to defend freedom," Baxley sighs, on defending his sop to the National Rifle Association.
Perhaps another aftereffect of lead poisoning is a deeply ingrained sense of paranoia. In the fever-dreams of Baxley and his NRA supporters, the danger of toxic pollution isn't the real threat to the public health and welfare. Rather, the real threat is the "heavy hand of government" reaching out to punish law-abiding gun range owners.
Why? Well, the answer is obvious. Because environmental enforcers have a "politically motivated agenda" to punish gun use, insists NRA Florida lobbyist Marion Hammer, a former president of the national organization.
These would be the same environmental enforcers who work for Gov. Jeb Bush, a politician who is anything but anti-gun. They are the same enforcers who, it's claimed by environmentalists, sometimes have to be prodded into enforcing Florida's pollution laws against industrialists, developers and agribusiness, let alone against gun range operators.
This lead-poisoners-protection bill came about because a gun range in Pinellas County is being sued by its next-door neighbor, which just happens to be the Southwest Florida Water Management District. The district thinks that a small lake, which is part of its environmental education center for children, is possibly being contaminated by lead-laced water runoff from the gun range.
"Children fish on this lake and we've been finding elevated lead levels in fish," William Bilenky, attorney for the district, said this week. "We're not demonizing gun ranges, we just happen to own property next door to one."
The notion that the DEP is engaged in some sort of anti-gun vendetta is not supported by the evidence. Nonetheless, the House Judiciary Committee approved Baxley's lead-poisoners-relief-act last week. It is likely to be one of the first bills to come before the full House when the 2004 regular session begins next spring.
The "public purpose" being served by Baxley's bill is crystal clear: The NRA demands it, and the Florida Legislature is a stooge for the gun lobby. If the state is worried about kids getting lead poisoning, then the answer is obvious: Make the kids stop eating poisoned fish.
Pop quiz:
Question: Why is lead shot no longer used by bird hunters?
Answer: Because lead is a toxic substance that contaminates water, soil and air.
Question: What part of the Second Amendment grants gun range owners the right to poison the water, the fish and our children?
Answer: Ask Rep. Baxley.
This bill is ridiculous. We just hope, for the sake of Florida's children and other living things, that the entire membership of the Legislature hasn't similarly been impaired by the intelligence-lowering effect of lead poisoning.
