NSSF

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NSSF Allowed Intervenor Status

January 18, 2011 by 2 Comments

From the National Shooting Sports Foundation:

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has granted NSSF’s motion to intervene in a suit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and several anti-hunting groups against the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The CBD’s underlying suit against the EPA seeks to have the court overturn the agency’s denial of a CBD petition filed in August of 2010 to have the EPA under the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) issue regulations to ban the manufacture, sale and use of traditional ammunition containing lead components, as well as fishing tackle made with lead components. The EPA properly denied the petition to ban traditional ammunition because Congress expressly exempted ammunition from regulation by the EPA. Later, the EPA also denied the petition as to fishing tackle because the CBD failed to demonstrate a scientific basis for the EPA to act.

“We are pleased with the court’s ruling because it will allow NSSF to ensure that the will of Congress is adhered to and the CBD does not succeed in its efforts to side step Congress and impose its anti-hunting agenda through the judicial system,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel.

In granting NSSF’s motion to intervene in the case the court acknowledged that the EPA could not adequately represent the business interests of NSSF’s members. The court also rejected the CBD’s efforts, in opposing the NSSF motion, to inappropriately limit NSSF participation in the case.

This is the case where Project Gutpile is one of the plaintiffs. Project Gutpile is a “hunter’s organization” composed of four members.

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More From NSSF On Proposed ATF Long Gun Reporting

December 30, 2010 by

The NSSF posted this yesterday on their blog:

More on ATF Multiple Sales Reporting

December 29, 2010 By Larry Keane

An editorial in today’s Washington Post discussed the recent decision by ATF to require federally licensed firearms retailers along the Southwest border to report multiple sales, or other dispositions, of most semi-automatic rifles. Specifically this would impact .22 caliber or larger semi-automatic rifles that are capable of accepting a detachable magazine and are purchased by the same individual within five consecutive business days.

Though the Post supports this ill-advised proposal, it did acknowledge the legitimacy surrounding one of industry’s objections:

“When reports of its plan surfaced, the administration came under immediate attack from the gun rights lobby. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry trade association, argued that the administration lacked the legal authority to demand data on rifles and shotguns. It has a point: While Congress authorized the ATF to collect information on handgun sales, it declined to extend the requirement to long guns. A court is likely to be asked to decide whether demand letters may be used to shake loose this information …”

NSSF continues to oppose multiple sales reporting of semi-automatic rifles. Such reporting requirements will actually make it more difficult for licensed retailers to help law enforcement as traffickers modify their illegal schemes to circumvent the reporting requirement. Traffickers will go further underground, hiring more people to buy their firearms. This will make it much harder for retailers to identify and report suspicious behavior to law enforcement.

NSSF would also like to remind all members of industry, sportsmen and gun owners to voice their concerns by doing the following:

1. Call the Office of Management and Budget, Office of Information and Regulation Affairs, Department of Justice, Desk Officer at (202) 395-6466.

2. E-mail Barbara A. Terrell, ATF, Firearms Industry Programs Branch at Barbara.Terrell@atf.gov

3. Call your Senators and Representative: United States Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121

4. Send an already formatted cap-wiz letter.

Points to make:

1.Multiple sales reporting of long guns will actually make it more difficult for licensed retailers to help law enforcement as traffickers modify their illegal schemes to circumvent the reporting requirement. Traffickers will go further underground, hiring more people to buy their firearms. This will make it much harder for retailers to identify and report suspicious behavior to law enforcement.

2.Long guns are rarely used in crime (Bureau of Justice Statistics).

3.Imposing multiple sales-reporting requirements for long guns would further add to the already extensive paperwork and record-keeping requirements burdening America’s retailers – where a single mistake could cost them their license and even land them in jail.

4.Last year, ATF inspected 2,000 retailers in border states and only two licenses were revoked (0.1%). These revocations were for reasons unknown and could have had nothing to do with illicit trafficking of guns; furthermore, no dealers were charged with any criminal wrongdoing.

5.According to ATF, the average age of a firearm recovered in the United States is 11 years old. In Mexico it’s more than 14 years old. This demonstrates that criminals are not using new guns bought from retailers in the states.

6.Congress, when it enacted multiple sales reporting for handguns, could have required multiple sales of long guns – it specifically chose not to.

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NSSF to Intervene in Lawsuit Challenging EPA on Traditional Ammunition

November 24, 2010 by

From the National Shooting Sports Foundation on the Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit against the EPA challenging lead ammunition:

NEWTOWN, Conn.—In response to a lawsuit filed today challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s denial of a petition to ban traditional ammunition containing lead core components, the National Shooting Sports Foundation will file a motion to intervene. This action allows NSSF to protect industry’s interests in the case and ensure that the will of Congress is adhered to.

The suit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, which earlier this year had petitioned EPA to ban traditional ammunition as well as fishing tackle containing lead. CBD claims wild birds are being harmed through the ingestion of spent ammunition fragments, though NSSF contends that no scientific evidence shows that wildlife populations are being affected.

In August after considering the CBD’s petition, EPA denied the request, saying it did not have the legal authority to regulate the production and distribution of traditional ammunition under the Toxic Substance Control Act of 1976. Congress expressly exempted ammunition from being regulated by this law. Some weeks after the agency’s decision on traditional ammunition, EPA also denied the other half of CBD’s request to ban fishing tackle. This one-two punch no doubt prompted CBD to file its lawsuit.

“We knew that this fight was far from over even after we gained that early victory,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel. “The CBD petition and now this lawsuit are clearly attacks on the right of hunters to choose the ammunition that best suits their hunting and target shooting needs, and they are attacks on hunting as well.”

Launching a strong grassroots campaign in response to the CBD petition, NSSF mobilized the sporting and gun-owning community to make its support for traditional ammunition clear to the EPA and its administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, via e-mailed comments and by contacting their lawmakers.

NSSF continues to stress the following in the debate over traditional ammunition:

  • There is no scientific evidence that the use of traditional ammunition is having an adverse impact on wildlife populations.
  • Wildlife management is the proper jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the 50 state wildlife agencies.
  • A 2008 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on blood lead levels of North Dakota hunters confirmed that consuming game harvested with traditional ammunition does not pose a human health risk.
  • A ban on traditional ammunition would have a negative impact on wildlife conservation. The federal excise tax that manufacturers pay on the sale of the ammunition (11 percent) is a primary source of wildlife conservation funding. The bald eagle’s recovery, considered to be a great conservation success story, was made possible and funded by hunters using traditional ammunition – the very ammunition organizations like the CBD are now demonizing.
  • Recent statistics from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service show that from 1981 to 2006 the number of breeding pairs of bald eagles in the United States increased 724 percent. And much like the bald eagle, raptor populations throughout the United States are soaring.
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Federal Microstamping Study Bill Introduced

July 8, 2010 by

The National Shooting Sports Foundation is reporting that Rep.Dan Boren (D-OK) has introduced HR 5667 which directs the Attorney General to work with the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a comprehensive study of microstamping. Rep. Boren is a NRA Board member.

It appears that the NSSF is supporting this as a way of preventing more state legislatures from adopting microstamping requirements given that all independent studies to date show it doesn’t work

The co-sponsors are a bipartisan mix and so far include Reps. Broun (R-Ga.), Bishop (R-Utah), Herseth Sandlin (D-SD), Altmire (D-Pa.), Miller (R-Fl.) and Boozman (R- Ark.).