Environmentalists have a history of pursuing very weird agendas under the guise of environmental protection and it appears that gun control is no exception. So, now there are environmentalists, and there's a huge difference between environmentalists and conservationists by the way, environmentalists targeting gun ranges and identifying them as environmental liability saying that they pose contamination risks to the environment and to employees and customers at gun ranges. The environmentalists making these games probably know far less than my next guest. James Bathel is the President and MT2 the leading fire range maintenance gun range, lead recovery, environmental remediation service provider in the United States and he joins me now to talk about this. James, thank you for being her and dispelling some of this nonsense.
I'm always, whenever I hear that ranges, etc. are dangerous to the environment I always think well if you're talking about lead don't we get lead from the very ground that we're standing on? I mean none of this makes any sense to me. Talk to me a little bit about what in the world these people are, why do they think that a gun, it's lead, lead comes from the earth. What am I missing?
Well, that's true. Lead comes from the earth and I think that it's an avenue to pursue a policy or an agenda that's not genuine, that most ranges, most range owners, most shooters are very careful with shooting and very careful with how we handle lead. And, part of our business is just to come alongside the range owners and the shooters and just pursue best management practices, just common-sense things that keep the environment safe, keep the shooter safe, and protect the air and the water. And, these things have been done for a long time and we're just proud to be able to help this industry continue to be safe and to minimize any impact to its neighbors.
Right and I mean we see some of the clean up there and I can't imagine, I mean I would of especially considering how there is such a strong [inaudible 00:02:13] advocacy out there. I can't imagine any gun range not following best practices when it concerns clean up. I mean I've never been to a range, I've never even heard of a range that wouldn't follow the proper protocol and the proper regulations for it. So, it seems kind of a strong man argument and another way to go after again law-abiding gun owners. But, I mean this is your industry, I mean you tell me. I mean I've never seen an occurrence where a range did not behave, did not follow regulations where it concerned clean up or disposal etc. Have you?
Well, I think our business goes back and deals with ranges from a long time ago as well as current ranges. And, I think certainly in the last 20 years we've been doing this now for 18 years and I think in the last 20 years there's been a recognition that you need to manage lead and you need to keep the lead on the range. And, perhaps 50 years ago, I mean just look at battery sites and mining sites. 50 years ago, there were a lot of practices that weren't very good, that contaminated land, but in ranges in particular lead doesn't go anywhere. What we find is that if it's in an indoor range that with a ventilation system the ranges, the lead's going to stay in the traps. And, if it's a trap and ski club then the range is going to fall in the shot fall zone and it's not going to migrate very much. And, certainly shooting into berms the leads not going to migrate. So, it's really a very rare instance where there's been neglect or avoidance of falling regulations that's for sure.
Yeah, the complaints that I hear especially just as of late it just seems to be kind of more fear mongering. Well, James I appreciate you joining us. MT2.com is the website. James, thank you so much for your expertise on this.
Thank you for your time.
