Elephant Ivory Poachers May Have a New Friend in the NRA

If we don’t do something soon, elephants may be extinct within our lifetime. Both the demand and price for black-market ivory is way up, leading to high poaching activity. With the exception of China, the United States has the highest demand for black-market ivory in the world, and the National Rifle Association (NRA) is fighting to make it easier for black-market ivory to come into the United States.

Let’s start at the beginning: ivory has always been a coveted material. Ivory is popular in China, where it’s often used for ornaments and ground up for use in traditional medicines. When China began implementing legal mechanisms to trade and sell ivory, the black-market prices shot up. In the last few years, the black-market ivory price has ranged from $100-$150 a pound. In some parts of China, good quality ivory can be sold for almost $1,500 a pound. The bigger and older an elephant is, the more ivory it will provide. Elephants in Central Africa are particularly vulnerable, given that they are less protected by the governments in those countries.

Researchers have estimated that if poaching activities are not stopped soon, African elephants will become extinct. According to the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, more than 100,000 African elephants have been killed in the last three years. Between 2010 and 2013, Africa lost roughly seven percent of its elephant population each year. Now, poachers account for 65 percent of elephant deaths, whereas just ten years ago they accounted for only a quarter. All of this means that elephant deaths are happening at a significantly higher rater than new births; experts estimate that if we don’t do something to stem poaching, these elephants could be extinct in about 100 years.

The U.S. has, admirably, taken some steps to try to slow the influx of poached ivory. The Obama Administration came up with a “National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking,” and the Fish and Wildlife Foundation suspended the import of African elephant trophies from countries where poaching is common. The focus was particularly on Zimbabwe and Tanzania; a press release created by the Fish and Wildlife Foundation read: 

Questionable management practices, a lack of effective law enforcement, and weak governance have resulted in uncontrolled poaching and catastrophic population declines of African elephants in Tanzania. In Zimbabwe [there has been] a significant decline in the elephant population. Anecdotal evidence, such as the widely publicized poisoning last year of 300 elephants in Hwange National Park, suggests that Zimbabwe’s elephants are also under siege.

The Fish and Wildlife Foundation has also recently destroyed ivory shipments that it found to break the law.

The NRA has a big, big problem with all of this. It claims that this will restrict the sales of even legally-obtained ivory. Its main concern appears to be that ivory was a main component in the construction of some antique guns. While not many guns were made with ivory, some that have been very popular among collectors were. So, the NRA argues that the stricter ivory laws will criminalize collectors who are just trying to sell and trade those antique guns. There are also sometimes new guns made with antique ivory, to mimic the older styles. The NRA’s argument is that the ban on ivory steps on the Second Amendment rights of those who want to purchase or own such antique guns.

Frankly, it’s a pretty weak argument. The idea of the law is to stop illegal elephant ivory poachers, not hamper Second Amendment rights. There are, however, plenty of NRA members who have been involved with legal elephant killings in Africa. Many African nations allow hunters with permits to shoot elephants. About 1,000 of those permits go to American citizens each year. I bet you a few bucks that at least a few of those thousand permits are given to hunters who have some affiliation with the NRA. And if those hunters were in Tanzania or Zimbabwe, they’d have serious problems bringing their trophies back. While neither argument is particularly good, it’s clear that there are multiple possible motives for the NRA to oppose these kinds of laws. Hopefully that doesn’t hamper the attempts to stop elephant poaching, but the way things are looking, the African elephant population is in real trouble.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.