Posted on April 1, 2013 by April Jester
A group of Harvard law students has come up with a novel strategy to achieve more stringent regulation of firearms in the United States, namely environmental citizen suits.
Frustrated by the slow pace of Congressional efforts to strengthen regulation of firearms, this group of students has filed citizen suit notice letters against dozens of hunt clubs and firing ranges in the South and Midwest. The notice letters allege that the hunt clubs and their members:
• Violate the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants from point sources over navigable waters without a permit
• Violate the Clean Air Act by emitting hazardous air pollutants without a permit
• Dispose of hazardous wastes, including lead and other heavy metals, without a RCRA disposal permit or compliance with the RCRA uniform waste manifest requirements
• Own and operate facilities where CERCLA hazardous substances are released into the environment; and
• Cause or contribute to the unpermitted disposal of solid waste.
This group of students, the Harvard Environmental Law & Litigation Society, is only recently organized, but they are clearly ambitious. One of the students, Angel Del Norte, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “We hope our efforts will blow some of those gun crazy deep South Bubbas out of the water.”
One of the targeted organizations, the Poteau Piscine Club in south Alabama, is working to organize a unified response to the citizen suit notices. The club’s President, Robert E. Lee (“Bobby”) Rhebop, stated in a press release that all of the organizations targeted in Alabama had agreed to contribute to a joint legal defense fund. Rhebop added, “If those pointy headed snot noses in Boston think they know something about guns, I can’t wait ‘til they see the business end of my .357. I’ll teach ‘em what a discharge from a real point source can do.”
Reaction has also spread rapidly in Texas. One of the targeted hunt clubs has persuaded their local legislator to introduce a bill in the state senate that would authorize Texas residents who attend Harvard to carry concealed weapons on the Harvard campus. As one proponent of the bill said “If we pass this sucker, I bet every Texan in Harvard will start getting straight A’s.”
To date no one from EPA has commented on the notice letters.
Tags: April Fools!, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, CERCLA, firearms, RCRA, solid waste