I remember that 3 page spread in the American Shooter magazine...if I remember correctly, he did not earmark the money for the range, but he lifted the roadblocks to ALLOW the State of Nevada to purchase the land for the range from the federal government, at a value of $61 million.
I’m no defender of Reid...not by a LONG SHOT. But I think that’s the way it played out. I might be wrong...I’ll see if I can dig up that particular magazine. I WAS pretty disgusted with the spread they did on Reid. Not a good way for a new NRA membership to start out, eh?
Let me see if I got this right. Reid gets $61 Million from the Feds to give to the State of Nevada. The State takes the money and buys the land from the Feds. What this means is that the tax payer is paying for the $61 Million, but the Feds get the money back.
It would have been better for the Feds to just donate the land to the State. In that case, it wouldn’t cost the tax payer anything. As it stands now, the Feds are counting the money twice.