Governor Brown Signs Lead Ammunition Ban

This is huge. Today Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill to ban lead ammunition in hunting, making California a leader in protecting wildlife from lead poisoning.

AB 711 is supported by conservationists, scientists and public health advocates, including thousands of CLCV supporters who contacted the governor to ask him to do the right thing. Authored by Assemblyman (and former interim Executive Director of CLCV) Anthony Rendon, AB 711 will protect more than 130 species at risk from lead poisoning when it is fully implemented in 2019. But it will also protect those who hunt and those who eat hunted game in California from ingesting lead themselves.

Lead is a known toxin that, despite being removed from nearly everything including paint, gasoline, and toys, persists in many forms of ammunition and threatens California condors, mountain lions, bald eagles and golden eagles, among others. The law will go a long way to restoring the health of the endangered California condor—of which there are only 224 in the wild, and in which lead poisoning is epidemic. Lead-based ammunition is the number one source of unregulated lead left in our environment.

“We worked very hard with the State Department of Fish and Wildlife to accommodate the concerns of hunters in order to pass this reasonable proposal to phase out of toxic lead ammunition.  I want to thank Governor Brown for signing this first in the nation legislation to protect humans and animals from lead contamination without affecting the ability of hunters to continue hunting.  We’ve taken out lead from paint, gasoline and toys in order to protect our families. Taking out lead in ammunition that is used to hunt just makes sense,” said Assemblymember Rendon.

In a signing statement that responded to critics including the National Rifle Association about the bill being "anti-hunting," Governor Brown said "hunters and anglers are the original conservationists" and that banning lead ammunition "will allow them to continue the conservation heritage of California." (Other advocates including Audubon California pointed out that when state laws were passed banning lead from children's toys, no one accused the law of being "anti-playing.")

This much is clear: the passage of AB 711 is major victory for California's environment and our wildlife.

(Read the governor's signing message here.)