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According to a bill brewing in Tallahassee, any attempt to diminish lead pollution at shooting ranges infringes Floridans' right to bear arms.
Just try to follow the twisted logic of legislation passed by two committees that give gun range owners immunity from the state's pollution laws.
It goes like this: Florida residents need to practice their gun skills, so ranges are a "necessary component" (the bills' language) of the constitutional right to bear arms. Yet if ranges are forced to clean up the lead and arsenic pollution they cause, they will go out of business and deny Floridians that right. The bills would actually punish state regulators who try to address the serious public health threat from shooters littering the landscape with lead.
Sen. Durell Peaden, a Crestview Republican and bill sponsor, took the argument one illogical step further by denying that lead contamination is even a problem. Since his district contains both a military firing range and good schools, Peaden concluded: "It's hard for me to consider us having the two highest performing school districts if birdshot and lead cause brain damage." This is coming from a retired doctor, someone who should understand that lead poisoning is a significant threat to mental development in children.
Peaden and anyone else skeptical of the harm that can be done by an irresponsible gun range should take a trip to the intersection of I-275 and Gandy Boulevard in mid Pinellas County. There, for decades, members of the Skyway Trap and Skeet Club have riddled the wetlands bordering Sawgrass Lake with lead pellets. The Southwest Florida Water Management District, which owns the wetlands, has determined that somewhere between 7,000 and 13,000 tons of lead have settled in the top 6 inches of the property. Acidic water leaches lead and arsenic out of the pellets, which then wash into the lake. (When it bought the property, Swiftmud tried to end the club's shooting easement over the wetlands but did not prevail in court.)
Such a scenario would be bad enough in the middle of nowhere, but Sawgrass Lake is surrounded by houses, businesses and a public park that invites children to its environmental education center. Swiftmud has had to post signs that read "Warning! No Trespassing! Contaminated area" along the shore, yet district employees still find broken fishing line and hear reports that children use the area for recreation. Some fish from the lake have been found to contain high levels of lead.
When it comes to regulating gun ranges, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection could not be accused of zealotry. There are at least 400 ranges in the state, and the DEP reviews their operations only if invited by the owners or if the agency receives a pollution complaint. DEP is currently involved with 27 ranges over cleanup issues and "in most cases, they're cooperative," said Mike Sole, head of DEP's waste management division. Only one case is in court - Skyway Trap and Skeet Club.
A civil trial is set for May, but should the gun range legislation become law first - similar bill versions (SB 1156 and HB 149) have passed both Senate and House committees - not only would Skyway be off the hook for any cleanup or liability, but other ranges would lose their motivation to cooperate with DEP. And that's not all. Any state or local regulator trying to stop the pollution (as the DEP and Swiftmud are doing now) could be charged with a third-degree felony. In other words, the guilty parties would be those trying to save the public from lead and arsenic pollution, and the polluters would have no responsibility to clean up their mess, which would probably fall to Florida taxpayers.
How could such irresponsible bills get so far? Three letters explain it: NRA.
With the National Rifle Association pushing the legislation, even many of its critics have knuckled under. One is politically ambitious Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, who admits that the bill is flawed but fears being labeled antigun. Feeding such paranoia is NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer, whose bombastic rhetoric labels regulations that hold gun ranges responsible for pollution "back door gun control" and calls the mild-mannered DEP a "bully" that is "drunk with power."
That's nonsense, of course. There are plenty of things gun ranges can do to eliminate the environmental threat from lead. In fact, some range owners follow responsible management practices, such as removing lead projectiles from the soil periodically, controlling runoff and using pellets made of metals other than lead.
This legislation isn't about gun control. It's about giving a few irresponsible range owners a free pass as they foul the environment and threaten public health. The only citizen right in jeopardy is that of Florida residents to protect themselves from harm.
As soon as lawmakers have this legislation in their sights, they should shoot it down.