Critic’s Misguided View of Gun Ranges Bill;NSSF Provides Facts

In response to a recent op-ed in the Colorado Springs Gazette (“Government should not be in the shooting range business”), doctor NSSF would like to help clarify what the Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act (S. 1249/H.R. 3065) will accomplish.

First, more about however, we must correct some statements the writer has made. The writer suggests that both gun owners and private ranges would be paying a tax to provide funding for public shooting ranges. In truth, this funding mechanism has been in place for 75 years at the request of the firearms and ammunition manufacturing industry, and it is paid for by those companies. The excise tax authorized by the Pitman-Robertson Act was imposed to support wildlife conservation and hunter education and to provide for public access and opportunity for members of the public to exercise the Second Amendment!

Second, the author, Barry Fagin, suggests that it is the federal government that would be building shooting ranges with passage of the proposed legislation. That is incorrect. It would be the states, using the funds reallocated to them, along with their own funds, to build and enhance shooting facilities available to the public.-[source]