Biden administration moves forward with hunting regulations by limiting certain equipment

The Biden administration made an announcement on Thursday that it was going to start cracking down on the type of hunting equipment hunters are allowed to use on federal refuges, a change that is being strongly opposed by sportsmen groups. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) released its 2023-2024 rule which lays out the regulations as hunting season approaches. 

One of the regulations involves cost-effective lead ammunition and fishing tackle being banned in eight national wildlife refuges by 2026. 

"This is the latest example of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service creating rules that punish hunters, threaten conservation funding and advance special interests without sound scientific evidence that traditional lead ammunition is causing detrimental wildlife population impacts," said Lawrence Keane, the senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation in an interview with Fox News. 

"This administration is ignoring its promise to ‘follow the science.’ In fact, it is ignoring the need for scientific evidence in order to advance an anti-gun and anti-hunting agenda," he stated.

This rule proposed Thursday would affect the refuges of Blackwater in Maryland, Chincoteague in Virginia, Eastern Neck in Maryland, Erie in Pennsylvania, Great Thicket in Massachusetts, Patuxent Research Refuge in Maryland, Rachel Carson in Maine and Wallops Island Nation in Virginia.