Iowa: Administrative Rules Committee Strips Dove Rule of Traditional Ammunition Ban!

Today, the Administrative Rules Committee met to review the National Resource Commission’s (NRC) final rule for Iowa’s first dove hunting season.  In a nine-to-one bipartisan vote, legislators overwhelmingly rejected the NRC’s underhanded attempt to include a traditional ammunition ban in the final dove rule.  This vote allows for a “session-delay” of the lead ammunition ban, meaning the legislature will have to act during the next legislative session to remove the ban from the final dove rule.  However, Iowa’s first dove season will proceed and will not include a traditional ammunition ban.   

During a recent NRC meeting last month scheduled to set bag limits and the length of Iowa’s first dove season in nearly a century, commissioners launched a surprise attack by passing a ban on the use of traditional ammunition while hunting doves.  The appointed seven-member, commission flagrantly usurped the authority of the legislators who debated the same ban and overwhelmingly rejected it.

Here are three reasons why the use of traditional ammunition should NOT be banned:

• No scientific studies regarding traditional ammunition have been shown to have any population-level impacts on doves or other species. In fact, doves are the most popular and abundant game bird hunted in America with population levels at all-time highs.
  
• The price of non-traditional ammunition with similar performance characteristics is significantly higher and will keep many hunters from taking part in the historic dove season, especially in these dire economic times.
  
• In addition to the lack of sound science, the Commission enacted the lead ammunition ban in an underhanded fashion with no public comment or notice.

The NRA will keep you informed as this issue moves through the state legislature next year.  Please take a moment to thank the following individuals for their help in stopping the traditional ammunition ban:

Governor Terry Branstad
515-281-5211 

Senator Dick Dearden (D-34), bill sponsor
[email protected]
515-262-1203

Administrative Rules Committee Members who voted “yes.”

State Senators:

Senator Wally E. Horn (D-17), Chairman
[email protected]
319-396-3131

Senator Merlin Bartz (R- 6)
[email protected]
 641-748-2724 

Senator Thomas G. Courtney (D-44)
[email protected]
319-759-5334

Senator John P. “Jack” Kibbie (D-4)
[email protected]
712-852-4140

Senator James A. Seymour (R-28)
[email protected]
712-647-2699

House Members:

Representative Dawn E. Pettengill (R-39), Vice Chairman
[email protected]
319-610-3412

Representative David E. Heaton (R-91)
[email protected]
319-385-9342

Representative Rick Olson (D-68)
[email protected] 

Representative Guy Vander Linden (R-75)
[email protected] 

To read NRA’s letter to Governor Branstad click here.

To read NRA’s joint letter to committee members click here.