Washington State Provides Funding for Gun Ranges

D

Don

Guest
Seems like a great chance to enhance shooting facilities, hope those in the State of Washington can take advantage of this program and that there are no hidden strings or agendas attached.

Washington State Provides Funding for Gun Ranges

Filed under: News — Editor @ 4 am
Through its Shooting Range Program, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) offers supplemental funding to shooting facilities. Approximately $50,000 in competitive grants are expected to be awarded this year (2008), with individual awards ranging from $5,000 to $25,000. Shooting clubs and range operators have until June 30, 2008 to apply for federally-funded grants that can be used to construct, maintain, or expand public shooting-range facilities in Washington state.

http://accurateshooter.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/washington-state-offers-funding-for-gun-ranges/
 
I spent the weekend before last at a Hunter Education IST Seminar in Yakima and this subject was hot........The Enforcement Division of the WDFW here in Washington is definitely doing its part in promoting our shooting sports.


Now may we all do our individual parts :)


al
 
The primary 'string' attached is that such a range must be open to the public at a *minimum* of 8hrs per month. Times that the range is open for matches, LE training, etc. do not count towards this - it must be 'open' range time. Which means scheduling volunteer range officers, shutting down parts of the range to keep Joe Public from wandering somewhere they shouldn't, etc. If a range accepts funds from WDFW, they are bound to maintain compliance for a minimum of 10 yrs, or be forced to pay back the grant.

Last time I checked (beginning of 2007) the IAC fund was sitting on over $600k that they couldn't *give* away, because most small private ranges can't or won't meet the public access requirement. I'm working on talking our board around (I'm a member of it) towards this, but volunteer range officers are surprisingly difficult to come by.
 
Monte,

Agreed. I've not petitioned for a dime because I want my range to stay truly private for now except for Hunter Ed. But for all of the struggling public ranges around it's a boon.

al
 
In case someone hadn't noticed, the WA money allotment comes from Pittman-Robertson funding so it doesn't even cost the taxpayers any money.

al
 
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