A list of donors to a state-owned shooting range under construction north of Rapid City includes $2 million from gun-industry companies or organizations.
The $20 million, 400-acre complex will be one of the largest public shooting ranges in the nation when it opens this fall, according to the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks. The complex will host recreational shooters, safety programs, marksmanship competitions and law enforcement training. It will include rifle, pistol, shotgun and archery ranges.
About $6 million of the project’s funding has been given or pledged by donors. The rest is from the state’s Future Fund for economic development.
The department announced last month in a news release that the range will be named the Pete Lien & Sons Shooting Sports Complex, but the release did not disclose the amount of the company’s donation, or include a full list of donations.
“We are extremely pleased with all of the support and excitement for the shooting sports complex and our Second Amendment rights in South Dakota,” Department Secretary Kevin Robling said in the press release.
Sounds like a nice public range.
Finally some additional money for building schools. /s
Learning how to shoot is still learning. That’s a skill more people are likely going to need in the near future.
Basic physics, especially electronics, mechanics and aerodynamics would be a better use. You guys need drones for guerrilla warfare.
What if I just got 100 large apes and conducted gorilla warfare?
Not a bad idea, could you get them to Venice and drop them off at the Bezos wedding?
Historically, this is what the NRA was for. They had basic designs setup that were very safe, and they’d offer grants to build them. There’s a local range by me (a private club, not state owned) that was developed that way. It’d be hard to shoot a bullet and have it get out of the range area.
They still kinda do it, but it looks like the industry is sending the funds on their own rather than funneling it through the NRA. Makes sense given the current state of the NRA.
I mean it’s swell of them to be chipping in but good Lord 20 million? That’s how much the gun range cost to build?
Usually these facilities are quite a ways out of town so they need to run power lines, waste lines, etc… very out of the way. Also this complex is huge so that’s probably going to include grading a lot of dirt building up embankments to catch stray rounds, hiring instructors and range safety officers. Someone to man the front desk possibly an initial stock of targets/ammo to sell to people who stop by. It’s not an invonsiquential amount of work and effort to build something like this.
