Last U.S. lead ammo company shut down by EPA

Apparently we are going to lose our Second Amendment rights without a fight, not even a whimper. The EPA now shutting down the last ore to lead producer. Gone. Finished. Now we are dependent on China. It is clear why the government has been buying up so much ammo.

The Examiner and James Rawles of SurvivalBlog.com detailed new importation restrictions set forth in a Presidential Executive Action following the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, which bans the importation of military surplus items that include magazines, firearms accessories and, of course, foreign ammunition.

HERCULANEUM • About 145 employees of the Doe Run lead smelter have learned they will lose their jobs at the end of December because of the plant’s closure, the Doe Run Co. said Wednesday. An additional 73 contractor jobs also will be eliminated.

The job cuts were expected. The plant, which has operated for more than a century and is the lone remaining lead smelter in the United States, announced in 2010 that it will cease operations at the end of this year.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the company “made a business decision” to shut down the smelter instead of installing pollution control technologies needed to reduce sulfur dioxide and lead emissions as required by the Clean Air Act.

The Doe Run Co. announced last year that it had dropped plans to build a new lead processing facility in Herculaneum that would have used a new, cleaner lead production technology. The company cited the

$100 million project as too financially risky.  More at St.Louis Dispatch

The government’s most recent efforts to reduce open market availability through taxation, individual purchase restrictions and a massive stockpiling effort by the Department of Homeland Security has forced ammunition prices to nearly triple, while also dwindling supplies of many popular calibers.

The all-out attack on Americans’ gun rights is now being taken to the next level.

The goal is to regulate all forms of ammunition out of existence, and they’re starting with Doe Run, which is the last of America’s domestic lead processing and manufacturing facilities.

Now, the only ore-to-lead producer in America… the largest in the Western world… has been shut down by EPA regulation.

EPA’s regulatory uncertainty and an estimated $100 million to convert [to non-smelter manufacturing] caused the company to finally throw in the towel.

Lead’s still going to be manufactured in China, but it’ll be done without any environmental oversight, it’ll be scarce, it’ll be expensive, and we’ll have fragile supply lines.

H/T and more over at: SHTF Plan:…

It’s party of multi-pronged attack on ammunition.

• Drying up the market by hoarding billions of rounds
• Shutting down the market with background checks, registration, and banning of online sales
• Environmental regulation to ban the use and manufacture of lead

And after we can no longer manufacture ammunition domestically we have the UN Arms Trade Treaty to stop the importation of ammunition.