Monday, January 23, 2023 – Last week, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) hosted its annual reception during SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. With the highest recorded attendance ever, special guests included members of the Governors Sportsmen’s Caucus, National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses and leaders of the sportsmen’s community.
The focus for the evening was the critical role sportsmen and women play when it comes to conservation and to thank those who have been the primary funders of conservation and access efforts for the last 85 years through the Pittman-Robertson (P-R) Act. Enacted in 1937 at the urging of hunters and recreational shooters, P-R is a celebrated partnership between the firearms and archery industries, state fish and wildlife agencies and America’s nearly 55 million sportsmen and women. Over the decades, this partnership has delivered consistent and meaningful results that benefit all people of this nation who enjoy clean air, clean water, and access to public lands and waters on which to recreate.
Last year alone, manufacturers of firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment who pay excise taxes on these products contributed over $1 billion in funding through P-R for state-based access, conservation, hunter education, and other programs critical to our hunting and shooting heritage.
Jeff Crane, President and CEO of CSF, kicked off the evening by emphasizing the need to continue this decades old partnership. “For 85 years, Pittman-Robertson has been the bedrock of our American System of Conservation Funding and has been heralded as the most successful public access and conservation program in the world. Without the strength of this partnership through P-R, there would be much less funding for conservation and critical habitat management within the states would be jeopardized.”
Governors Mark Gordon (WY), Tate Reeves (MS), Jim Pillen (NE), and Brad Little (ID) each provided remarks and emphasized the importance of what the hunting and shooting sports mean for their respective states and captured the critical role sportsmen and women play when it comes to conservation and the management of species and their habitats.
CSF would like to thank all of the sponsors who made this year’s SHOT Show reception possible including Bass Pro Shops; Cabela’s; Ecentria; Hornady Manufacturing Company; National Shooting Sports Foundation; Richard Childress Racing; Safari Club International; SCHEELS; and Vista Outdoor, Inc.
