I believe there is currently a bill being worked on that will give states more flexibility with how they use the resources from the Pittman-Robinson Act. If you're unfamiliar with this act, please educate yourself since you've likely been paying an 11% excise tax on guns and ammunition for your entire life and might not have ever known it. Most of the funds go toward wildlife restoration and hunters love to brag about how hunting is the biggest player in conservation (which is certainly true). However, with respect to these funds, that mostly go toward conservation, over 80% of the funds are generated by people who are partaking in recreational shooting that is not hunting. That said, I believe the bill to allow more flexibility is trying to give the states more options for funds usage with the specific eye toward building more ranges. What's the point of charging EVERY person who buys guns or ammo an additional tax, then using so little of it for building public ranges?
Here is the Wiki on the Act:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittma...estoration_Act
As per this article, in my eyes, between the Land and Water Conservation Fund (which is built public access in every single county in the united states) and the Pittman-Robertson Act,
there should be plenty of money already available to spend on more public shooting ranges to accomplish what this article is talking about, but without banning public shooting.
On another, but related note, as many people have mentioned on here in the past hikers, mountain bikers, climbers, etc could pitch in to these public funds as well so we can stop doing dumb things like stealing money from Colorado wildlife and giving it to the parks. People say, "Well you can't just start taxing people for recreation!" but that's exactly what happened with guns, ammo, archery, and even angling equipment and everyone just got used to it and went on with their hobbies. It would be especially grievous, in my opinion, to continue to take extra tax money from recreational shooters to spend on public lands, then kick those shooters off the land. That should be the angle to defeat any dumb bills that come out of this.
Finally, the most recent MeatEater pod cast with Steven Rinella addresses these issues (and even talks a lot about suppressors!) if you'd like to hear more. Here is the podcast
https://www.themeateater.com/listen/...er/ep-155-guns with Larry Keane and Mark Olivia from the National Shooting Sports Foundations.
Originally Posted by Irving
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