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.
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.