Posted on 04/15/2019 3:26:53 PM PDT by PROCON
The bill, now headed to the U.S. House, would make it easier for states to use federal funds to create public gun ranges (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
A bipartisan measure designed to boost the number of shooting ranges available on public land passed the U.S. Senate last week.
The proposal, S.94, was introduced in January by U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV and Michael Bennet, D-Colo. The bill, which was reported favorably from the Committee on Environment and Public Works in February, passed the chamber as a whole in a voice vote on April 10 and now goes to the House for consideration.
Under the current guidelines, states must match federal government funding 25 cents on the dollar to begin working on public shooting ranges administered through local conservation agencies. To make that bar more obtainable, the bill drops the matching formula to 90/10 while also allowing funds to accrue for up to five years up from two.
As such, S.94 would modify the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act. This 80-year-old law uses an excise tax levied on all firearms and ammunition sold or imported into the country to perform conservation-related tasks as varied as restoring elk habitat to funding safety programs and establishing public shooting ranges.
Paid for by manufacturers and producers, the fund has been pushed into overdrive in recent years because of a spike in gun and ammunition sales. Earlier this month, conservation officials announced over $670 million in Pittman-Robertson funds would be available to states this year alone.
The range expansion bill is endorsed by gun rights organizations like the National Rifle Association as well as firearms trade groups such as the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Public shooting ranges provide hunters a place to sight in rifles and shotguns before hunting seasons, for people to take firearm safety and hunter education courses and, for recreational target shooters to enjoy their sport, said Larry Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel.
There’s one caveat to submitting a bill to your Rep and expecting it to go anywhere — massive $$$$ contribution.
I worked for a small startup once and we were winning various government R&D contracts. We got an earmark for a research budget once and learned what it takes to get ANY appropriations added to a spending bill. You have to grease their palms big time!
Wow.
How naive on my part.
Maryland has two great ranges designed to provide an urban feel. They are known as East Baltimore and West Baltimore.
The Missouri Dept of Conservation has established many (like 50 or so) shooting ranges throughout the state. The one nearest me is free. All I have to do is drive there. Some do charge a fee. It is nice to live in a gun-friendly state.
“Keep a sharp eye out for flying pigs”
Do you think Hillary will take to her broom over this?
Irrelevant to this conversation, I went to a range today in New Jersey. I was alone and felt like killing an hour shooting. I walked in and the counter guy asked me if I was with somebody. I say no and without missing a beat he says I cannot shoot. I ask him why and he starts telling me about the number of range attendants are not enough to watch their groups and also watch me. I show him my open carry permit and he doesn’t care.
I thought that was odd.
Only spending bills have to originate in the house.
Still has to pass the House.
Will the ‘rats pass it or will they kill the bill due to their hatred of our gun rights?
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Id be surprised if Pelosi even allows it to come up for a vote. She wouldnt want to give the NRA something to score against her RATS.
Maryland has two great ranges designed to provide an urban feel. They are known as East Baltimore and West Baltimore.
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West Baltimore is where I like to zero my weapons. /sarc
Funny (as in “coincidence”) that you’d mention that.
S. Illinois already has the “World Shooting Complex”, a LARGE facility, run by the State: Basically it is in the middle of nowhere, but only about an hour from downtown St. Louis. I happened to detour by there, curious about it, 10(?) years ago in one of my travels hither, thither, and yon. It was a nice day, but the place was virtually deserted. Some time later I read the Complex was losing money, big time. Ex Gov. Rauner wanted to shut it down. (Business decision.)
Curious, I made it a point to run by several times, in more of my travels, for a number of years. The odds were very stacked against me in swinging by when an event was “on”, but I still marveled at how the place was always deserted.
Apparently the Complex does draw lots of gun enthusiasts... a few times a year. That’s not enough to make it financially viable.
The thing is, I think this facility (not to mention the nearby astonishingly lightly used 19,701 acre Pyramid State Park) could both be at least revenue neutral for the State, if not money makers in the bigger picture, if properly promoted. But, while competent in other areas, IDNR (Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources) has not much of a clue when it comes to marketing what they have in the way of facilities and resources. And that goes doubly so for the rest of the state government!
There are a lot of such lightly used facilities in S. Illinois. A handful of the parks get heavy use during peak times in summer. However, they are the exception, from what I’ve seen, unless things have really changed in recent years. (One obvious exception was the 2017 eclipse: Friends and news articles around the area report it was packed!)
Worse... IDNR can’t properly maintain what they already have, but keep opening up new facilities, buying or otherwise taking on more land, etc.
Interesting. While I realize southern Illinois is more like Tennessee politically, it is still screwed by being in Chicago dominated Illinois. A few years back when the trap/skeet governing body was deciding where to move I wrote them a letter imploring them not to move to Illinois because of anti-gun Chicago. I also wrote the same to Cabelas about moving to Hoffman Estates/Cook County. Now they are enjoying a $25/gun and .05 cent per centerfire round extra tax. Dumb bastards all.
I am against this bill. Public gun ranges will take the inefficiency of the govt and put it in gun range form. Endless paperwork, restrictions, silly rules, banking hours, and on and on. How about we let people open up private ranges and allow them to succeed or fail on their own merits. States can regulate private ranges. The feds have proven they could screw up a lemonade stand.
SMH It’s all about $$
NOW everything is beginning to make sense.
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