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A bill that would allow gun range owners to freely pollute our environment with a deadly substance is passing with little opposition through committees in Florida's House and Senate.
When will someone in the Florida Legislature stand up to the gun lobby? Not anytime soon, apparently. Another committee - this time Senate Criminal Justice - passed a bill that would give gun range owners a free pass to pollute the ground, water and air with lead, endanger the heath of adults and children and stick taxpayers with all cleanup costs. Even that giveaway to the National Rifle Association isn't enough. The bill (SB 1156 and a similar bill HB 0149 in the House) would make it a crime for a state or local official to take legal action against a polluting gun range.
And there is more. Any lawsuit pending against a gun range would have to be dropped, a provision added to the bill to protect the Skyway Trap and Skeet Club. Skyway, in mid-Pinellas County, faces a court date in May when it will have to answer for polluting the ground and water at Sawgrass Lake Park. For decades, Skyway members have riddled the Sawgrass wetlands with shotgun pellets, which leach lead and arsenic into the lake where children participate in environmental field trips and even catch fish. Some fish in the lake contain high levels of lead.
Cleanup costs at Sawgrass have been estimated at $10-million to $15-million, but it would become the taxpayers' responsibility if the bill becomes law. This gift to the gun industry is coming from the same lawmakers who can't find enough money to fully fund Healthy Kids, a program that provides medical care to poor children.
An array of responsible groups have had the courage to oppose the bill. The latest to speak out included an official with the Pinellas County Health Department, which has been investigating two lead poisonings of individuals who frequent indoor gun ranges. Lead residue is left behind each time a bullet is fired and can build up in a facility that is not properly ventilated or maintained. One such gun range in Clearwater blew lead dust onto a nearby playground at a child care center before it was shut down.
If the bill becomes law, "what it says is we're even forbidden from investigating or even trying to educate people," said Melanie Thoenes of the Health Department's lead intervention team.
While lead poisoning can lead to a variety of illnesses - from high blood pressure to impotence - it can also be lethal. Children and pregnant women's fetuses are particularly at risk because even small amounts of lead can cause irreparable harm. More than 3-million young children suffer from lead poisoning, which leads to brain damage and behavioral problems or even death.
Gun ranges aren't the only source of lead in the environment, of course. But they are a source that can be controlled. There are more than 400 ranges in Florida and most of those contacted about violations have been cooperative. Simple measures taken at outdoor facilities can protect the public, such as shooting over land rather than water, regularly removing lead projectiles from the soil and controlling runoff.
If the threat and solutions are so clear, why have state lawmakers lost their way? The answer is also simple: They are afraid of NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer and the organization she represents.
Hammer has twisted this public health issue into a ludicrous argument against what she calls "backdoor gun control." Lawmakers are so intimidated they suggest in the bill that the environmental impact of lead projectiles accumulating in the environment is "disputed." Who disputes the health threat from lead? Only Hammer, who calls such concerns "heifer dust." No, it's lead dust and it is dangerous to humans, particularly children.
The bill has passed committees in the Senate and the House with little opposition. The only hope Florida residents have to stop this costly and dangerous mistake is Gov. Jeb Bush. The governor has said he would veto any bill that gives blanket immunity to gun ranges, although he added that he would welcome a compromise.
What is there to compromise? The lead pollution at Skyway Trap and Skeet Club and the lead dust accumulating at indoor ranges is a serious threat to public health. The polluters should pay to clean up the mess they created.
We urge Gov. Bush to stand up to the gun lobby because it looks as though the Legislature has been pistol-whipped into submission.