In a blog post this week, former Florida congressman Allen West gets behind a conspiracy theory that holds that the Environmental Protection Agency is launching a “clandestine” and “backdoor” assault on the Second Amendment. The gist of the theory is that President Obama used the EPA to shut down a Missouri smelter that refused to comply with anti-pollution regulations, thereby creating a scarcity of bullets and, in West’s words, “destroy[ing] the Second Amendment.”
Of course, there is no actual evidence to support West’s claim. In fact, the EPA first went after the smelter in question in 2008, the year before Obama became president. Steve Benen notes: “If enforcement of environmental safeguards was used to secretly undermine access to ammunition, the plot was launched by the notorious gun-grabbers in the Bush/Cheney administration.”
Despite the lack of evidence and the fact that the smelter was targeted before Obama even took office, now Gun Owners of America is also embracing the patently bogus conspiracy:
Mike Hammond, legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America (GOA), agrees with West, saying this is clearly a backdoor attack on the Second Amendment.
“We don’t think it’s coincidental that a company that melts lead for bullets was targeted by the Obama administration, given the politicization [of the issue],” he tells OneNewsNow. “As a matter of fact, every way the Obama administration can go at the Second Amendment through the back door it’s attempted to do so.”
Hammond says it is also scary that the federal government is buying up so much of the ammo that is produced.
“People all over the country are saying [they] can’t buy bullets – and the Obama administration said Oh, we just need them,” states the GOA spokesman. “But people all over the country are finding difficulty buying ammunition because of large government purchases.”
