BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 711 (Rendon) - Hunting: nonlead ammunition.
Amended: June 12, 2013 Policy Vote: NR&W 7-2
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes (see staff
comments)
Hearing Date: August 30, 2013 Consultant:
Marie Liu
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: AB 711 would require the use of nonlead ammunition
when hunting all wildlife in the state.
Fiscal Impact (as proposed to be amended):
Ongoing costs of $45,000 from the Fish and Game
Preservation Fund (special) for the Fish and Game Commission
(commission) to update regulations annually on the list of
certified ammunition and related education materials.
Likely minor impacts to enforcement costs.
Increased cost pressures for program to supply hunters with
nonlead ammunition at a no or reduced costs
Background: Existing federal regulations prohibit the use of
lead shells for waterfowl hunting.
The Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act (act), requires the use
of nonlead centerfire rifle and pistol ammunition when taking
big game or coyotes in specified deer hunting zones in the
California condor range. The commission is required to certify
nonlead ammunition in its regulations and to update the list of
certified ammunition annually. The act also requires the
commission, to the extent funding is available, to establish a
process that will provide hunters with nonlead ammunition at no
or reduced cost. At this time, no such process has been adopted,
nor has funding been made available for this purpose.
Proposed Law: This bill would expand the requirement to use
nonleaded ammunition to all hunting within the state. The
commission would be required to develop regulations by July 1,
2015 that phase in this requirement completely by January 1,
2018.
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This requirement would not apply to government officials when
carrying out their mandatory statutory duties.
Related Legislation: AB 821 (Nava) Chapter 520/2007 established
the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act.
Staff Comments: The commission under existing law is already
required to certify nonleaded centerfire rifle and pistol
ammunition and to update its regulations accordingly annually.
This bill would expand the types of nonleaded ammunition that
the commission must consider for certification at a cost of up
to $45,000 annually. This amount includes the costs to notify
hunting license holders and provide public education regarding
the regulation.
Wardens are enforcing the existing nonleaded ammunition
requirements with visual inspections of ammunition and have
technology to detect lead in certain types of ammunition. This
bill is unlikely to pose additional enforcement costs as the
wardens can expand this current enforcement process to all areas
of the state. DFW notes that enforcement of the existing law and
this bill could be enhanced, increasing the confiscation of
bullets and increasing requests for ballistic analysis by the
Department of Justice. Staff believes such increased enforcement
is unlikely and is not required or implied by the bill.
Existing law directs DFW to offer reduced or no cost nonleaded
ammunition to hunters, provided there is funding available,
presumably to offset the difference in cost of leaded and
nonleaded ammunition when AB 821 was passed. As no funding has
ever been provided, no such program exists. However, should it
ever be enacted, this bill would add additional cost pressures
to the program since hunters statewide would be interested in
receiving reduced cost nonleaded ammunition instead of just
those who hunt in the condor range or those who hunt waterfowl.
The cost pressure on this program is unknown as there are no
parameters for the program.
There is the potential for this bill to impact the sale of
hunting licenses. Since the passage of the Condor Protection
Act, the sales of deer tags in California have not declined.
However, staff notes that the demand for deer tags and hunting
licenses are impacted by a myriad of factors, so that the lack
of significant change in deer tags is not necessarily an
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indicator of the impact of the Condor Protection Act on license
sales. Should there be a decline in hunting licenses purchased,
the state would lose the revenue from the hunting license fee
and may potentially receive less federal funds under the
Pittman-Robertson Act, which distributes funds among the states
based on the number of licenses sold. The state receives
approximately $10-11 million in hunting license revenue
annually. The likely impact of this bill on hunting licenses is
unknown.
Sales tax revenue potentially can be affected by this bill to
the extent that nonleaded ammunition is priced differently than
leaded ammunition and to the extent that nonleaded ammunition is
available for sale in the state. An article in the journal
Ambio<1> did a comparison of ammunition prices available at
Cabela's Inc. Website on July 25, 2012. A comparison of prices
on one given day was chosen as prices can change based on market
forces, volatile global metal prices, and changes in consumer
preference. The author found that the price differences between
nonleaded and lead-core ammunition was inconsistent across all
brands of ammunition. However, for the most commonly used
cartridges for hunting deer, elk, moose, and bears in North
America (7mm Remington, 0.30-06, .300 Winchester, .375 H & H,
and .416 Rigby) the ammunition costs were identical. It is
unknown how ammunition sales may be affected by this bill, but
staff believes that the findings of the Ambio article suggest
that the likely impact is minimal. For reference purposes, every
10% reduction in annual ammunition sales, annual sales tax
revenue could decline by approximately $3.6 million General Fund
(based on a General Fund rate of 3.9375%).
In regards to the availability of nonleaded ammunition,
opponents contend that nonleaded ammunition could be banned by
the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
(ATF) as armor piercing ammunition. The ATF regulations on armor
piercing ammunition ban the use of certain metals in ammunition.
However the regulations also specify that it is not intended to
impact ammunition used primarily for sporting purposes, such as
hunting. At this time, the ATF has not granted any waivers for
nonleaded ammunition designed for hunting that use banned metals
despite multiple active waiver requests from the manufactures.
However, the supporters of the bill have also noted that the ATF
---------------------------
<1> Thomas, V. G. January 4, 2012. Lead-Free Hunting Rifle
Ammunition: Product Availability, Price, Effectiveness, and Role
in Global Wildlife Conservation. Ambio.
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has not taken enforcement actions against the sale of existing
nonleaded ammunition. Staff also confirmed the availability of
four calibers of nonleaded ammunition that are certified by DFW
in a phone call with one manufacturer. Staff notes that there is
widespread limited availability of ammunition currently due to
issues outside this bill. If ATF waivers are not issued and ATF
begins to take enforcement action against the sale of some
nonleaded ammunition, there could be a dramatic reduction in
ammunition sales and hunting license sales. The likelihood of
this scenario is uncertain although staff believes it is likely
that ATF will not take any actions in the near future on waivers
or enforcement.
This bill creates a local mandate because it creates a new crime
or infraction. However, this is not a reimbursable state
mandate.
Proposed Author Amendments: Amend to delay the implementation
date to 2019, to preserve the existing ban on the use of leaded
ammunition in the California condor range, and to require the
temporary suspension of the leaded ammunition prohibition for a
specific hunting season and caliber upon a finding by the
director of DFW that nonleaded ammunition of that caliber is not
commercially available from any manufacturer because of federal
prohibitions related to armor-piercing ammunition.