The side effects of such widespread gun usage in the US are a bummer, but at least that proliferation protected your country from being overrun by a tyrannical facust government.
Littering 🚯
Submitted 1 month ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/f868a2ad-bf4a-4a41-9c88-db9f13869993.png
Comments
Agent641@lemmy.world 1 month ago
coaxil@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
It’s amazing how well their gun culture stopped the tyrannical dictatorship from teaching taking over!!!
minkymunkey_7_7@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The gun culture is the fascists. So yeah it was a success.
hector@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Good point, thank god, wait a minute…
woodenghost@hexbear.net 1 month ago
It’s the leading cause of death for all birds of prey in Europe too. Partly because hunters leave killed animals or their guts lying around, where the birds find them. It’s not just vultures who eat already dead prey. But birds who only eat freshly killed prey (live falcons) are dying at the same rates. Why? Because their prey often has lead embedded in their bodies. They mistakenly eat it too, but also one in three living ducks and geese in Europe has been shot before and has lead permanently embedded inside their body.
Fluke@feddit.uk 1 month ago
“Hunters”; that use a literal scattergun to murder animals because they lack the skill to succeed with anything less should be shamed as the pathetic little cowards they are.
If the hunting isn’t about the murder, prove it, and use a more discriminating weapon to do the job and only harm what you intend to kill and eat.
graycloud@leminal.space 1 month ago
That’s what confused me too, if you use lead ammunition, how are you going to eat what you kill? I live in an area where trapping is more common so forgive the inquiry, the use of lead bullets has always confused me.
mathemachristian@hexbear.net 1 month ago
Kill hunters
Formfiller@lemmy.world 1 month ago
You can use steel shot
SillyDude@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
The US banned lead birdshot in 1991. Are they eating squirrels?
NoDignity@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Eagles will eat just about anything they physically can so probably lots of squirrels, rabbits, smaller possums and raccoons but also eagles will sometimes eat carrion so I could certainly imagine they sometimes get this off something like a deer carcass.
Formfiller@lemmy.world 1 month ago
People still use lead target shells all the time
kilgore_trout@feddit.it 1 month ago
Ungulates and rodents, mostly.
rayyy@piefed.social 1 month ago
Birdshot is only banned for migratory bird hunting. Many landowners shoot woodchucks with rifles because they dig holes that livestock step in and break their legs, also the holes cause problems with equipment - they most often use lead bullets and leave the carcasses for the wildlife to dispose of. Some have switched to green ammunition but few have. We need to raise awareness for the need to switch to non-toxic ammunition. Maybe a bill that subsidies green ammunition with a small tax on lead ammunition could help.
kilgore_trout@feddit.it 1 month ago
This is not exclusively an American problem. Eagles in the Italian alps are dying mostly of lead poisoning, too.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Gonna guess it’s due to left over fragments from WW1?
kilgore_trout@feddit.it 1 month ago
No, it’s due to these birds eating other human-hunted animals, either alive or their abandoned interiora.
hector@lemmy.today 1 month ago
In the US it’s from lead bullets, they scavenge a lot so they eat it from shot animals.
HiobsTriops@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Unfortunately, this most American thing is also strongly affecting white-tailed sea eagles and other raptors in Germany and neighboringcountries. Choose lead free ammo, folks. www.bund.net/themen/naturschutz/…/bleimunition/
stoy@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
This is partly why I haven’t got into air rifles, I have wanted to for a long time, but there is no good place to shoot it nearby.
Some may say that I should just go out in the woods and shoot there, but I don’t want to spread lead in nature.
I know there are lead free pellets, but I have heard mixed opinions about them.
Why an air rifle specifically?
Because I can get a low power one (10J muzzle energy) without a license, and I can’t be arsed to get a license for a proper firearm as it requires a fair commitment here.
SillyDude@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
If you just want to plink in your backyard then just get a BB gun that shoots steel BBs. And only use iron sights which will teach you instinctive aiming. I’d say that’s actually way more fun than a scoped air rifle. If you’re not going to be head shorting squirrels then you don’t really need the accuracy of a dialed in air rifle. Looking in a scope at a piece of paper and shooting the same hole looses its appeal pretty quickly.
zxqwas@lemmy.world 1 month ago
For Air rifles you can have a bullet catcher that is basically a funny shaped tin can you put your paper target in front of. It will collect the lead if you hit the target.
stoy@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Yeah, I just know I am bound to miss and don’t want to contaminate anything.
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
You can get pellets and ball ammo in other materials. Might have to special order them, not sure how available they are over there, but they do make them. I have steel ammo for my air pistol, it’s my back yard pleasure shooting gun, so lead isn’t acceptable to me.
stoy@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
I live in an apartment, so I need to find a good place to shoot before I get a rifle, I’ll also checkout what other kinds of pellets I can get.
Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
I can’t be asked to get a license for a proper firearm
My god, what tyranny you live under, please tell me what authoritarian country you live in so uncle sam can come free you.
stoy@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Hehe, I’d be happy to tell you my general understanding of the laws, I am not a gun nut, and there are probably a few details I get wrong.
Anyway.
In Sweden you can only get a gun for two reasons, hunting or competition, getting a gun for self defense is illegal.
To get a gun for either reason, you need to pass tests and for competition licenses, display an active need for the gun in competitions.
Wikipedia has a better summary of the laws on this page:
Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Ban lead bullets then. Allows people to keep hunting while preventing more pollution in the wild.
Plenty of time after that to ban other things.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
We did that in California. It worked.
musubibreakfast@lemmy.world 1 month ago
That’s a very un-American solution. I think it would be much better to sell fire arms to eagles so they become aware of the problem and they can effectively hunt fresh prey and thereby circumvent the entire issue.
NannerBanner@literature.cafe 1 month ago
They’ve been trying. I occasionally glance through the nra’s magazine because a family member is lust-addicted to the stories of people shooting others to defend themselves, and there have been little articles in their ‘defending gun rights’ section about lead bullet bans for at least a decade now. The nra and other gun lobbies have a lot of money to throw at the issue, and have actually overturned some of the bans, I believe.
porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Ban lead bullets then
Are you insane? These brave Eagles are dying to protect our freedom
woodenghost@hexbear.net 1 month ago
People have tried to ban it. But it’s an ever so slight inconvenience for hunters to switch to other ammunition.
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Why is lead used at all? Why not steel?
hector@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Lead is denser, it weighs more per volume, so it travels farther and faster when propelled by an explosion. Uranium works even better, which is why they use depleted uranium in some military applications, as it’s more dense than lead, quite a bit better. Gold or platinum would work better too as they are heavier.
Fun fact, in a half billion years or so, the element of uranium decays into lead.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 1 month ago
While that’s a factor, it’s a very minor one - soft metals (lead and copper) are used as projectiles primarily because the bullet itself deforms to engage with the rifling when fired (softer materials also present far less wear on the rifling as a result - this is why shotguns, which are smoothbore and thus far less delicate, often use steel projectiles). The weight of the projectile is largely secondary to the mechanical properties of the material while it’s being fired.
jbellows@piefed.social 1 month ago
I read this twice. I’m trying to comprehend. The problem, I think I comprehend absolutely perfectly but my soul doesn’t want to. Am this close to screaming until hoarse and sweaty. Am at work so will see if I need to do this in the parking lot.
tetris11@feddit.uk 1 month ago
I dream sometimes of all the regressives in the world getting into a rocket ship and blasting off for some fantasy Planet B, leaving the progressives behind to clean up the mess.
And we do, and slowly the world heals.
Then the regressives realize that Planet B is too far away, and that Earth is actually faring pretty well now, and they try to come back.
When we don’t let them set foot on Earth, they promise to nuke us from space, and then there’s this standoff with them in orbit pointing a weapon at the only place that can support their progeny.
Damaskox@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Ehh…rarher choose no bullets at all? 🙄
ideonek@piefed.social 1 month ago
Yes, sure, it was “let’s talk about how to optymize our ‘mmunition” kind of meme.
yellowfattybean@hexbear.net 1 month ago
This is the same reason why the California condor nearly went extinct. Afaik the education campaign worked and hunters generally made the swap to steel jacket (I assume) bullets
thlibos@thelemmy.club 1 month ago
Pretty sure eagles are in the out group, so they deserve to die. /s
Maybe if Dear Orange Leader tells them to give a shit about eagles, they might…
selokichtli@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
And brain damage.
peteypete420@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Now, does this affect how many freedom eagles equal a pound, or whatever it is they use in the metric system?
Solumbran@lemmy.world 1 month ago
“Choose lead free ammunition”
No?
Just stop shooting guns and murdering things like a crazy ape?
Damarus@feddit.org 1 month ago
The American mind cannot comprehend this
arrow74@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
What are you even talking about? There a plenty of people that hunt even here in Germany
ArgentRaven@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The overwhelming majority of bullets are used against paper or steel targets. Most hunters take the entire carcass for butchering, so the eagles aren’t eating lead from animals shot and left in the wilderness. And given the volume needed, I wouldn’t be surprised that they’re eating fragments fired at steel targets that they mistake for rocks to keep in their stomach to grind up food.
zxqwas@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Don’t know what they do over there, but we usually get the lungs and guts out as soon as possible in order to keep the meat from spoiling. Long lived predators that likes to scavenge can develop lead poisoning from those remains if it’s their main source of food.
If confusing with rocks was the main source you’d expect it to be just as common in other birds.
Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
This is untrue, gastroliths are associated only with birds that eat plants. They grind up food, which isn’t necessary for meat. Eagles eat bullets from animals that have either been shot and abandoned, lost, or had parts of them discarded as zqxwas pointed out.
Solumbran@lemmy.world 1 month ago
That’s why I also mentioned to stop shooting guns. If you are shooting in such an unsafe way that fragments fly around and get lost, then you shouldn’t be allowed to shoot in the first place.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
OK, I think this is an incredibly stupid argument.
From the ethical perspective of anti-meat, hunting animals is so much better. They get to live natural lives, and they die in a similar manner to they do in nature (maybe a little faster, which is good).
From an environmental perspective, hunting keeps pray populations in naturally healthy levels, since most of their predators are driven out of populated areas, because people don’t like to be attacked by wild animals. It also doesn’t consume many resources, as they’re just living their lives in nature.
I don’t think there’s any valid argument against hunting honestly, besides just being grossed out by it. That’s fine, and you can just not do it. I’ve never hunted in my life, and I suspect I never will. It’s not really something I want to do. I can’t construct a good argument against it though, and I suspect you can’t either. If you can, give it a shot, and remember animals dying and being eaten is natural, and frequently necessary to maintain an equilibrium that was evolved to be maintained by external factors. Deer, for example, will die horrible deaths of starvation, and do damage to the environment, if they aren’t hunted by humans.
Senal@programming.dev 1 month ago
Crazy ape comment aside (i’d put it closer to apes with delusions of grandeur but that’s just me), not shooting guns and allowing hunting aren’t mutually exclusive.
Especially given all the hunting that happened pre-gun.
I don’t know if it’s on purpose but your answer seems to be ignoring a lot of the realities of how the things you are proposing would work (or not work, as the case may be).
Aarkon@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
Just because something happens on its own in nature doesn’t mean it’s a good thing per se - for instance, I prefer the warmth of my heated house over the “natural” cold temperatures of the winter months. That’s the famous “appeal to nature” fallacy right there.
Also, like others already pointed out, hunting deer is only necessary because we eradicated most of their natural predators. Making the case for hunting today in order to fix a problem hunting created in the past feels oddly circular to me.
Unquote0270@programming.dev 1 month ago
You must be exhausted after all those huge jumps in logic and reasoning.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I have a half assed argument against hunting, and it’s mostly my being a picky ass. Most of the time, the game around here, you get better meat from the store. So people just let it sit in their freezer and it ends up going to waste. Which reminds me, I have some moose ass in my freezer I gotta eat.
FatVegan@leminal.space 1 month ago
Let’s try the not poisonous bulltes first. Because something tells me that Americans can’t even do that.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 month ago
We killed the predators on a lot of our continent. Deer hunting is ecologically necessary here. And thats before we get into the boar problem
Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Not if wolves were reintroduced to native levels.
IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.wtf 1 month ago
Plenty of people hunt for food. Lead ammo should be avoided though.
Gullible@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I think you might have some ontologically incongruous standards. We are crazy apes. You can take the guns away, but the murder will persist for millennia, if not gene edited out. Banning the guns and lead bullets is more likely to work than expecting humanity to spontaneously diverge from its evolutionary roots of the bang bus murder ape
Solumbran@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I don’t know, humans are good at diverging from their instincts when it comes to letting sick people die, but when it comes to killing less, they cannot anymore?
I think that low-ass standards are what prevent humans from getting any better, if you start justifying mindless murders as “just instinct” then of course people will be fine with it. And funnily enough, that’s one of the main arguments that hunters use, saying that they’re just doing something “natural”.
SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Adding that into my book of wonderful phrases.
athatet@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
People don’t really change their actions very often. I mean, people are still posting on twitter, for example.