Several years ago, during a conversation about the need for more shooting ranges, Jim Shepherd threw out the idea of creating “100 new ranges—two per state.” It was a simple concept, an easy goal to understand and, in some cases, an achievable one.
Sure, there are states where building a new shooting range presents major hurdles. Rhode Island doesn’t have much room, and starting any business in California is an arduous process. Opening a shooting range there probably makes Sisyphus’s job look easy. But other states offer great opportunities for new ranges. And there’s been progress.
A spring 2026 update from the federal Office of Conservation Investment lists 123 new public ranges built under the 2019 Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act. Those include 47 firearm ranges, 27 archery ranges and 49 combination facilities. So the idea of building another 100 ranges wasn’t particularly outlandish.
The question is, where the next 100 should go?
That conversation with Jim probably took place around the time I wrote “Between The Berms: 10 Years Wasted” for the June 12, 2013, edition of The Shooting Wire. In that column, I lamented the missed opportunities that followed “the major court and legislative victories on the ‘let’s sue gunmakers for the actions of criminals’ front.” I wrote . . .
Instead of standing on top of the political heap, planting our flag and daring anybody to try and knock the king of the hill off, we should have been building our softer side. We should have been cultivating our outreach effort to women.
Providing more locations for people to enjoy shooting is a critical part of that equation. Firearms ownership and recreational shooting become more mainstream as more people—particularly allegedly “nontraditional” participants—start buying guns and shooting them.
But those opportunities need to be where people can easily use them. In a 2023 NSSF survey of state wildlife agencies, respondents identified urban and suburban ranges as having the greatest public demand…and as the most difficult to provide. Finding places to build was their biggest expansion obstacle.
Which brings us back to the present. Today, we continue to win legal victories — on what seems a daily basis — thanks to the work of gun rights orgs like SAF, NRA, FPC and GOA, along with financial backing from NSSF and its member companies.
It seems we are nearly invincible—at least it can feel that way—when it comes to fighting in the courts these days. The problem with that sentiment, though, is the political cloud on the horizon. That cloud looks darker as we approach the midterm elections, with polls showing Trump’s approval below 40% and disapproval above 60%.
In modern politics, that 40% approval threshold is important because it’s where the candidate tends to becomes so toxic that even their core base begins to fracture. It hasn’t really happened yet, but when vulnerable incumbents openly break with the president on certain issues to protect their own asses reelection prospects, the ice gets pretty thin.
Losing the House, the Senate or both in the midterms would be a warning sign heading into 2028. And if Democrats emerge from that election controlling both Congress and the White House, the effects on the judiciary won’t be pretty.
The prospect of expanding the Supreme Court to shift its ideological balance back toward the left is a legitimate concern. For the firearms industry, the stakes include the future of favorable court rulings and the prospect of stricter gun control and the reinstatement of punitive regulation. That gives us a little over two years to make as much progress as possible before the political landscape changes catastrophically.
Meanwhile, the court battles will continue under the Supreme Court’s current makeup, backed by the gun rights orgs and the industry. And we have SCOTUS’s “assault weapons” ruling to look forward to next year. But continuing to build that softer side still includes giving more people more places to shoot. We need to fund and start building more ranges now—public, private, and commercial.
NSSF and Southwick Associates produced state reports showing where existing ranges are located and where shooters live. Those reports help states identify promising locations for new public ranges built with Wildlife Restoration funds. And the federal share can cover up to 90% of an eligible public range land acquisition, construction or expansion project.
On a qualifying $1 million project, that leaves only a $100,000 non-federal share to make up. That’s a meaningful incentive to start turning a range proposal into reality.
Partner with a Payer also identifies potential sources of matching support, including grant programs from the MidwayUSA Foundation, NRA, The 1791 Foundation and Easton Foundations. Eligibility depends, of course, on the particular project and program.
On the commercial side, Range USA opened its first location in 2012. It now has 52 locations nationwide offering more than 1,100 indoor shooting lanes.
Opening another 100 ranges in the next two years is a high hurdle. Securing funding, navigating local regulations, meeting building codes and completing construction all take time. But we clearly can’t count on the political climate staying in our favor. The political pendulum always swings back the other way. Eventually.
So there’s no time like the present to get more ranges projects underway. Otherwise, we’ll look back at this period and ask the same question I asked back in 2013: Why didn’t we do more with the momentum we had?
Only a literate and educated population is going to be able to keep their civil rights.
The h0m0sezu@l and @the!st Tom Ammiano, ran for the San Francisco school board in the early 1970s. With the publicly stated purpose, to stop 2A education and put an end to the public school shooting teams. In the city by the bay. And he was successful. Because 20th century american citizens became lazy. They became distracted by the “bread and circuses.”
At one time EVERY college. And EVERY high school had shooting teams. And the includes the segregated schools too.
They had rifle, shotgun, and even handgun teams.
Most had a shooting range on school property.
Fighting for an individual right is a “delaying” action. And there are currently many of them going on right now. In the different states.
The gun grabbers understand all of this. But the people with 5 or 6 gun safes with grand dads shotgun are mostly clueless.
The problem with the ‘gun community” is that they simply GAVE UP on public education. But the communist did not. The communist real do like public education.