
Lead poisoning is a major threat at America’s shooting ranges - jwess
http://projects.seattletimes.com/2014/loaded-with-lead/1/
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hga
Just skimmed it (about to go to bed), but I'm not impressed:

For starters, as others have noted, the danger is from the lead styphnate in
primers when used in indoor ranges. They ought to have made that clear ...
especially since there's an obvious solution which is good for ranges (we
don't entirely trust lead free primers yet, but unless one causes a squib
misfire that lodges a bullet in the barrel, it's not a serious problem).

They invoke the eeeeevil NRA ... which is the organization of gun _owners_.
Not a word about the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the
organization for the gun _industry_ , including ranges.

Don't know if they went into it for real, but this danger has been generally
recognized for as long as 3 decades. The NRA has certainly been telling its
members about it. Just like we're told not to eat or smoke while reloading. Of
course, there's more than one compelling reason to not smoke while reloading
^_^.

~~~
astrodust
Inspecting barely a fraction of the facilities and having very limited power
to prosecute the most flagrant violators is the take-away from this.

You're obviously reading something into this. I didn't get a "guns are bad,
NRA is evil" vibe at all. Instead I read about how people in this industry,
customers and employees have little to no protection from potentially
hazardous environments and perhaps no idea how severely contaminated some of
these ranges are.

It would seem that if one of these ranges had an elevator in it, the elevator
would be inspected far more frequently than the range itself would be.

Maybe you've been informed about the potential risks of an indoor range, but
it seems that those risks are severely compounded when an operator flagrantly
ignores any reasonable safety standards like filtering recirculating air.

~~~
hga
The bias is there, or at least the normal gross ignorance of the MSM, in e.g.
talking about the NRA but not the NSSF; the latter is inexcusable sloppiness.
Or trying to confound the dangers of indoor and outdoor ranges. Or, heck, is
there the slightest evidence they talked to anyone on my side about how we
view this?

For that matter, the MSM's _Der Stürmer_ approach towards the NRA and
gunowners suppresses membership in the former and therefore the education the
latter might otherwise get from reading the member magazines.

Perhaps I'm oversensitive, but being part of this fight since the early 1970s
(sic) bias from the MSM is assumed and the tropes are trivial to detect.
Counterwise, not genuinely biased reporters and editors are so marinated in
gun grabbing bias---as _you_ are unless you read a _lot_ from other sources to
counter it, even if you're an active gunowner, even a NRA member (or so
surveys tell us about the latter)---they'll automatically use them even if
they weren't really meaning to be biased. Perhaps a style vs. substance
problem, since the problem is real ... but, again, the dismissive attitude
towards the NRA and the blackout on the NSSF shows the limits of their
research, and at some point "they're the generically clueless MSM" excuse
doesn't cut it.

Did the article give any examples of _customers_ being harmed? In these
situations, it's almost always an occupational danger, since owners, employees
and volunteers get massively longer exposures, and are also responsible for
cleaning the place, which can also expose them to lead fragments at the end of
the range. I think nowadays almost all centerfire bullets are jacketed, but
ubiquitous and inexpensive (until very recently) .22 LR rimfire aren't
jacketed, or not seriously. Probably less of a threa

I also wonder why OSHA and the state OSHAs aren't on the ball. The usual
suspects on my side, the NRA and NSSF, are very serious about this (the exit
of the very nice NRA's HQ range in Virginia has two hand washing stations you
can't miss and as mentioned publicity of the dangers, and see
[https://www.google.com/search?q=nssf+range+lead](https://www.google.com/search?q=nssf+range+lead)),
they publicize the dangers, the NSSF helps ranges ... the OSHAs could be more
heavy handed if they wanted to be, as long as it was clear to these orgs they
weren't just trying to shut down ranges. And there's funding to be had for
ranges (add "fund" or "funding" to the prior search).

~~~
astrodust
The way the NRA handles perceived threats with over the top hyperbole is not
very helpful in debates like this. It'd be like restaurant owners complaining
that food inspectors are there simply to shut their place down.

Lead is a hazardous material. There's no debate here. Where you have hazardous
material in an enclosed environment you will have problems unless proper
precautions are taken. Without even cursory inspections, how can you know this
is the case?

If you want to froth and rage against the so-called mainstream media, which it
should be noted is largely owned by massive empires controlled by extreme
right-wing oligarchs like Rupert Murdoch, that's hardly helping. How do you
expect someone to write an article aimed at the general public when it'd end
up drowning in industry jargon and speak about organizations few ever have to
directly interact with?

Like it or not, the NRA is the PR department for not just gun owners, but the
gun industry at large. The NSSF seems largely absent from any debates.

------
sixbrx
INDOOR ranges, to be clear. I don't know how people can stand shooting in them
because of the increased percussion, regardless of lead poisoning.

~~~
hga
If you're at all interested in self-defense, getting used to the percussion,
albeit with hearing protectors, is a very good idea, since you might have to
use a gun inside a building.

(There are earmuffs that'll receive, or even amplify outside noise except of
course for gun shots. They're _very_ useful for instruction.)

------
wycx
Anyone know in what form lead occurs in the residue/vapour at gun ranges?

Is it all native Pb, or are other more soluble compounds formed during firing?

~~~
chrisbennet
There is lead styphnate in primers though I think there are lead-free ones
now.

------
Pinckney
Interesting article. Ventilation is one of several reasons I strongly prefer
shooting at outdoor ranges.

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justignore
Took a second to realize that the headline wasn't a joke.

