Green Ammunition Legislation Passes in the Assembly

I was gratified to see my bill A5728 which prohibits the use of lead ammunition when hunting on state land and land that contributes surface water to the New York City water supply pass in the Assembly in March 2022. Lead is a highly toxic substance that can cause extensive nervous system damage, reduce fertility, heart disease, and death. Lead poisoning is particularly dangerous to children and pregnant individuals. Despite the progress that has been made over the last decades to remove lead from consumer products such as gasoline, paint, and water pipes, lead remains as the most prevalent material of which to manufacture firearm ammunition. Due to its malleability, lead ammunition fragments upon impact with a target, lodging miniscule lead splinters up to 18 inches away from a wound channel in a hunted animal. The use of lead ammunition not only poses a risk to humans who eat meat harvested with the toxic metal, but also endangers eagles and other scavengers who eat leftover “gut piles” and “bloodshot” that is discarded by hunters in the field. This legislation builds off the federal ban of lead ammunition in hunting waterfowl enacted in 1991 under the Bush Sr. Administration, the federal ban of using lead ammunition on all federal land under the Obama Administration in 2021 that was later rescinded by the Trump Administration, and the statewide ban on the use of lead ammunition in the State of California that went into effect in 2019.