Lead Ammo Continues to be Scrutinized in the Northeast

Why It Matters: The attacks on the use of lead ammunition have continued throughout the 2025 legislative sessions across the northeast. The use of lead ammunition in hunting is a contentious issue in some states, with the primary concern being the potential effects on wildlife. However, bans on such lead products can cause a decrease in crucial conservation revenue for state fish and wildlife agencies through decreased hunting and angling participation, which ultimately negatively impacts the critical habitat and fish and wildlife management work of the agencies. Therefore, these bans should only be considered at such a time when a state’s respective fish and wildlife management agency finds irrefutable scientific evidence that lead is having a detrimental population-level impact on a particular species in a specific and well-defined geographical area.

Highlights

• On March 28, 2025, Maine HB 887 was introduced during the Special Session, which would direct the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to study the impacts and risks to wildlife, humans, and the environment of using lead-based ammunition to hunt and submit a report with findings and recommendations to the Joint Standing Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. This bill was tabled on 4/14/2025 during a Committee work session.
• Maryland HB 741 and SB 634 sought to require the Department of Natural Resources to phase-out the use of nonlead ammunition. Both bills failed.
• New York S 4954 and A 1089 would prohibit the use of lead ammunition in the taking of wildlife on wildlife management areas, state forests, forest preserves, state parks or any other state-owned land that is open for hunting and on land contributing surface water to the New York City water supply. These bills currently sit in the Senate and Assembly Committees on Environmental Conservation, respectively.

Over the years, legislators, sportsmen, and the outdoor industry continue to face bills directed at reducing or eliminating lead ammunition. If lead ammunition were to be banned today, manufacturers would be required to retool their facilities all at once. This is a costly and time-consuming process that would cause an increase in consumer prices, along with a potential shortage of non-lead ammunition, further exacerbating the significant increase in ammunition prices and low availability for lead ammunition experienced in recent years.

The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) worked with Maine’s Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus leadership to combat the proposed directive aimed at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to study lead impacts on wildlife and humans. For now, Maine HB 887 has been tabled, but surely some future confrontation over the use of lead ammo in Maine will return, and leaders in the state have already signaled they are willing to stand down and allow “the inevitable” to happen. Rest assured, CSF and our in-state caucus leaders and partners stand ready to fight lead ammo ban attempts when they inevitably come up.

As previously reported, CSF engaged heavily in the Old-Line State to thwart efforts to phase-out all lead ammo by July 1, 2029. CSF testified in person in the House Environment and Transportation Committee as well as in the Senate Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee, in addition to submitting written testimony (SB 634 & HB 741) in opposition to this unnecessary legislation.

Maryland’s legislative crossover date was March 18, requiring all legislation to be sent to the opposite chamber to continue through the legislative process. SB 634 and HB 741 never received a vote in their respective committees; thus, making them ineligible for crossover and killed for the year.

CSF has also engaged in New York where law makers are raising concerns about the New York City water supply and potential lead contamination. A ban on the use of traditional ammunition on hunters would have a statistically irrelevant impact on the amount of water in the New York City Water supply but would have potentially serious ramifications of suppressing hunting and the associated conservation funding from the American System of Conservation Funding (ASCF) utilized by the New York State Department of Conservation (NYSTDC). NYC Environmental Protection, which provides services to New York City, states on their City website, “New York City drinking water is lead-free when it is delivered from the City’s upstate reservoirs and distribution system.” CSF is working with our caucus leadership and in-state partners to avoid the negative ramifications of such policy. CSF continues to monitor the movement of both S 4954 and A 1089.

To prevent the negative impacts lead ammunition and tackle bans would have on conservation funding, legislators should proceed with caution when considering an overarching ban on lead ammunition. Instead, legislators are encouraged to work with their respective state fish and wildlife agency to address any lead-related concerns through incentive-based programs that encourage the transition to non-lead products if valid scientific justification is found. Furthermore, any regulatory language should clearly specify that if it is scientifically determined that lead-based ammunition is having a negative population level impact on a species, either locally or regionally, only reasonable regulations to that area, or for that specific species will be implemented.

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