One of President Obama’s parting shots aimed directly at America’s gun owners was an executive order banning lead ammunition on federal lands signed, almost literally, as he walked out the White House door on his final day in office.

The ban, which took effect immediately, eliminates the use of lead-based ammunition on federal lands like national parks and wildlife refuges, as well as any other land administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The ban is expected to have a major impact on much of the hunting that takes place on federal lands across the United States as lead-based ammunition is widely legal and used throughout the country.

Since taking office, President Trump has been reversing Obama’s executive orders at a frenetic pace.

President Trump has indeed done about as much as a president can do on his own over the past week to begin the process of unraveling a lot of President Obama’s policies. While many see his flurry of executive orders as some kind of new agenda, the real impetus behind every signed order has been to try to first bring many of the nation’s policies back where they were in 2008.

Despite the media hysteria and hand-wringing, he hasn’t reversed all of the 44th president’s executive actions.  One he hasn’t addressed yet is the lead ammo ban.  According to missoulian.com,

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe issued a rule to gradually ban the use of traditional lead ammunition and some fishing tackle on national wildlife refuges and some other federal lands. The ban would be imposed over five years.

President Donald Trump is being criticized for using similar executive privilege to reverse some Obama measures this week, but so far Trump has not addressed the rule that could affect the use of lead for hunting, shooting and fishing on federal lands.

And the US Fish and Wildlife Service isn’t sure yet how to implement the ban.

National wildlife refuge staff contacted last week said they haven’t received word from officials in Washington, D.C., on how the rule will be handled.

“At this time, we are evaluating the order and its implications,” Gavin Shire, USFW chief of Public Affairs in Virginia, said on Friday.

Let’s hear it for bureaucratic inertia.

Trump hasn’t been in office even two weeks yet. And while he’s been criticized for everything from racism and xenophobia to poor communication and incompetence — not to mention blamed for the death of an old woman and the Canadian mosque shooting — not not even his most rabid critics have accused him of indolence.

So perhaps un-doing the Obama lead ban is still on the president’s undoubtedly lengthy to-do list. America’s shooters and hunters certainly hope so. They’d just like to see him check that box sooner rather than later.

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25 COMMENTS

    • Truth. It’s too early to tell anything. Trump nominated an excellent jurist to the bench. That alone is praiseworthy.

    • Not even two weeks yet…
      My memory may be a bit shaky but I’m pretty sure BHO had been to the golf course three times by this same point after his inauguration.

  2. That’s got to be about number 899 on the top 1000 things Trump has on his Drain The Swamp list.

    • Without citation beyond the linked article it says:

      “…eliminates the use of lead-based ammunition on federal lands like national parks and wildlife refuges, as well as any other land administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service.”

      I am guessing, based on that, that it would not do so. I was a bit worried about the same thing given two of the most popular open shooting areas near hear on on BLM land.

      Of course, given everyone seems to like to bring their TVs and shoot them then leave them behind I’m surprised they haven’t been closed already.

  4. This isn’t rocket science. Appoint a team to find all the Obama executive orders (then start on G.W.B.) within 7 calendar days that ARE WORTH PRESERVING. Then sign a single order that repeals, moots, invalidates, overturns, renders null and void, every Obama executive order or action not on the preservation list. One order, shut down multitudes. Then put agency directors on notice that they have 90 days to unravel any actions taken under the cancelled Obama orders.

  6. Thanks! TTAG!

    I can add ‘indolence’ to my personal vocabulary. 😉 had to look that one up even though I had a pretty good understanding of the meaning based on context….

  7. Even your own referenced link shows that the ban was an agency regulation and not and executive order as your title claims. The new agency head, once in place, can right this wrong and reverse the regulation.

    • What’s the executive order number? The last Obama executive order was 13764 on 1/17/17 and it was an order on civil service. The link you provided, again, shows that it was an order by Dan Ashe, the agency head. It’s DIRECTOR’S ORDER NO. 219. It would be good if you read this order, some of the things being written about this falsely labeled executive order are misleading or downright wrong. While the order took immediate effect, the lead ban provisions do not. From order 219:

      Sec. 3 What is the Service’s overall policy? It is the Service’s policy to:

      a. Require the use of nontoxic ammunition and fishing tackle to the fullest extent practicable for all activities on Service lands, waters, and facilities by January 2022, except as needed for law enforcement or health and safety uses, as provided for in policy.

      Then the last gem of an item in the order:

      Sec. 6 When is this Order effective? This Order is effective immediately. It remains in effect until we incorporate it into the Fish and Wildlife Service Manual, or until we amend, supersede, or revoke it, whichever comes first. If we do not amend, supersede, or revoke it, the provisions of this Order will terminate on July 31, 2018.

      There are lots of writers out there just repeating a headline without reading the agency order. You have a great chance here do the opposite, read the order, and write about what’s in the order and not what some other media out wrote about a story they read from yet another media outlet. This is like the 2016 NDAA and the CMP nonsense all over again, where no one read the NDAA yet grandstanded that we’re all going to be getting surplus 1911s (none have been transferred to the CMP and the authorization to do so has expired)

      • Thank you Johnny, you seem to be the only other person to have actually read the executive order. The order implements no ban. It directs the agency to begin research and education efforts to eventually figure out how to someday, by 2022, use state and local laws to extend lead ammumition bans to lands controlled by the FWS, namely National Wildlife Refuges. Not BLM lands, not National Forests.

        Let’s keep the Truth in TTAG, we get enough of the other from the antis.

        • Never accept a government regulation on its face. Every regulation is merely the first step toward expanding the mandate, the budget, the empire. Back in the day, it took time and effort to change things, paper documents and all that. Now, simple clicks on the keyboard makes changes lightning quick and everywhere at once. Reviews become final reports, dates are extremely flexible and misleading, zealots read and implement each order, action, regulation, ruling, you name it. The interesting thing is that since 1900, every modern tyrant telegraphs intentions, publicly, clearly. And the masses ignore what is right in front of them, with self-assurances, “They can’t possibly mean…”.

  8. Rome wasn’t built in a day. As others have noted the guy has higher immediate priorities.

    Side note: I find the ongoing Lefty freak out greatly amusing. Typical of Lefties they pretty much invite the questions If he’s so incompetent, as you’ve argued ad nauseam, what are you worried about? If he’s so scary because he’s not incompetent why did you feel the need to lie about his competence? Are you actually retarded or do you just have a taste for paint chips?

  9. Give him time. It hasn’t been 2 weeks yet…but I sure enjoyed seeing the “evil” Wayne LaPierre seated next to him!

    • OMG that was so sweet. I had to do a double take when I saw that. I giggled like a girl thinking about how that would drive the anti-gun idiots out of their freaking minds and it did. Only thing better would of been Don Jr sitting on the other side of Wayne.

  10. It appears from the linked article that National Forest target ranges are not affected. Is this correct? Whew. Sure hope so. Of course I expect Trump to cancel the regulation but nonetheless shows the vileness of Obama even toward the Fudds that voted for him, like he turned coat on every independent who fell for the lies he spouted. Hate to say it but I fell for the lies. Not this time. Trump all the way. (Never Hillary and also, sorry Texans, never Cruz.)

  11. Of all the 2A-infringing laws that need to be addressed (removed) now that Trump is in office, this is only exceptional because it’s Obama’s last order in office, snuck in under the wire like so many pardons.

    Hunting with monolithic copper rounds or steel shot is not the terrible change some people seem to be making it out to be. It’s not even much of a change, there’s plenty of it out there already and it’s no more expensive than lead-cored or lead shot “hunting”-specific ammunition.

    I’d really like to see steady momentum (i.e., news) with the HPA, national reciprocity, and hopefully, as part of that reciprocity, the undoing of things like magazine and feature limitations. This government has the potential to undo everything from 1934 to 1986, essentially restoring the second amendment. Imagine an auto sear in every lower parts kit because that’s just normal.

    The single law I could listen to the argument for is violent criminals losing their right. I’m not even saying I’m for it, I’m saying someone could argue the logic of it to me and I’d listen and consider it.

  12. The swamp is rather large. The alligator population density very high. Enjoy your favorite bourbon while listening to the squealing of the alligators as the swamp continues to leak out as more and more ditches are dug.

    Trump is like a bull in a china shop of liberalism. The sound of glass breaking is daily now and likely to continue for a couple years. He’s busy figuring out what highly fragile glass pot of liberal nonsense to shatter next. The choices of what to break are so dog gone many it’s a daunting task.

    I’m thinking a couple 500mg Patience pills are in order on this topic.

    Patience my friends, learn to sit back and enjoy this wondrous show.

  13. It’s coming. Don’t you worry.

    I’m pleased to say Congressmen aren’t waiting for Trump to take the lead, as evidenced by the SSA legislation’s passage.

    John

  14. If it gets hunters all riled up, you can probably expect to see Trump repeal or amend the order sometime in the lead-up to fall hunting season, when it will have maximum public impact.

  15. Until the president eliminates Federal funding for Sanctuary California (especially SF & UC Berkeley), and enforces federal equality for gun laws in states, I’ll still be living with Californias complete lead ban nearly fully implemented now.
    4-6 more years working and retiring elsewhere will be the final solution I fear.

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