HYDROVIV: Don’t Blame Lead Contamination on Gun Ranges

By Gregory Smith

If you’re current on the news, you know that one of the latest tactics being used to keep us from shooting is saying that lead from downrange bullets contaminates drinking water.

Lead contamination is a potential problem… but the government doesn’t exactly have clean hands on this topic.

Anyone who grew up in the Sixties and Seventies will remember the controversies over lead paint and leaded gasoline that were much in the news at the time. While change eventually occurred for the better, it took decades of pressure on paint manufacturers, and plenty of local legislation, before the United States banned the use of lead additives in household paints nationwide in 1978. This is after knowing the toxic effects of lead for DECADES. We finally thought that this toxic material was finally put to bed.

The latest wave of struggles involves lead contamination in municipal drinking water, accompanied by suspect government agency behavior in the wake of the events. Hard as it may be to believe some 40-50 years after lead paint and leaded gasoline were all over the news, lead contamination is still a problem in many cities, and official responses have sometimes been slipshod.

Lead is found in the infrastructure of older …Read the Rest