Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.
The New American
11/6/2013
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not content to infringe on property rights; recent actions taken against the country’s last lead smelting facility will affect the right to keep and bear arms, as well, by substantially impacting the production of ammunition. As of December 31, 2013, the lead refining plant will close for good.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports:
About 145 employees of the Doe Run lead smelter [in Herculaneum, Missouri] learned they will lose their jobs at the end of December because of the plant’s closure, the Doe Run Co. said Wednesday. An additional 73 contractor jobs buy discount online viagra also will be eliminated.
The job cuts were expected. The plant, which has operated for more than a century and is the lone remaining lead smelter in the United States, announced in 2010 that it will cease operations at the end of this year.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the company “made a business decision” to shut down the smelter instead of installing pollution control technologies needed to reduce sulfur dioxide and lead emissions as required by the Clean Air Act.
That all sounds so very sterile, but the truth of the matter is that in shuttering this plant, the Obama administration has taken yet another unconstitutional step, one that will severely impinge on the nation’s ammunition manufacturing capability…
…The effect on the right to keep and bear arms is obvious. As explained by the National Rifle Association (NRA):
The Herculaneum smelter is currently the only smelter in the United States which can produce lead bullion from raw lead ore that is mined nearby in Missouri’s extensive lead deposits, giving the smelter its “primary” designation. The lead bullion produced in Herculaneum is then sold to lead product producers, including ammunition manufacturers for use in conventional ammunition components such as projectiles, projectile cores, and primers. Several “secondary” smelters, where lead is recycled from products such as lead acid batteries or spent ammunition components, still operate in the United States.
Without ammunition, a gun is just a club. The government knows this, and in light of the ongoing project of arming federal agencies to the teeth with millions of rounds of ammunition and military-grade weapons and vehicles, the EPA’s closing of the Doe Run plant, although not a direct assault on the right to keep and bear arms, can be seen as another step toward civilian disarmament…
Read the entire article at The New American.
Related: I’m From The Government And I’m Here To Inspect Your Guns
…[Michael] Graham is bringing to light a little known Massachusetts state law which allows the state and it’s agents to ensure firearms are being properly safeguarded against theft and misuse.
According to Graham, one Massachusetts Selectman wants to now begin using this law to allow local authorities to barge in on anyone they want in order to ensure compliance with the state law…
Update: Instapundit:
STEPHEN HALBROOK: What made the Nazi Holocaust possible? Gun control.
I read a prepublication version of his new book, Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and “Enemies of the State.” Well worth your time if you’re interested in this subject.
