Leadless Bullets Are All the Rage
There are several bad things about bullets. First on the list: When they enter the human body at a high velocity, they have deleterious health consequences. Somewhere down on the list is that they typically contain lead, and while one bullet won’t stunt your kid’s mental growth (unless she’s shot in the head with it), hundreds of thousands of rounds can eventually deposit enough of the heavy metal into the soil to contaminate groundwater and do all of the other environmentally unpleasant stuff lead does. Thus it is with muted enthusiasm that we report the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, where agents of 76 federal agencies are trained, now uses “green bullets” made of iron, copper, and other less-toxic metals. The center estimates that the switch has eliminated 70,000 pounds of lead waste. The bullets disintegrate upon impact, though, so they aren’t actually used in the field. You Earth First!ers fleeing FBI gunfire still have lead pollution to worry about.
