Why It Matters: In July of 2024, Massachusetts passed a new omnibus gun law which would require a live fire component to obtain a mandatory Firearm Identification Card. Without specific legislative protections, long-standing and storied shooting ranges are in jeopardy of being closed due to newly enacted local regulations including noise ordinances, lead abatements, and operating hour restrictions. Minimizing zoning restrictions, unnecessary fees, and allowing for the grandfathering of shooting ranges within city limits are essential steps to assuring access in the future. States like Maine in 2016 enacted a bill to protect ranges from unwarranted lawsuits and initiate seniority rights for established ranges. Ranges are essential for recreational shooting, recruiting new participants in shooting sports and providing a place of practice to ensure hunters’ safety and ethical shots afield.
Highlights:
- Massachusetts mandates live fire component to Firearm Identification process in 2024.
- New York requires at least two-hours of live fire training for pistol permits as of August 2022.
- Suffolk County Skeet, Trap and Sporting Clays Range lost a legal fight due to noise ordinances in November 2019.
As hunting season approaches, hunters will be flocking to their local range to zero in their favored firearm. These sportsmen and women will be competing for range time with regular recreational shooters, firearm live fire training/classes, and other scheduled events. As more and more citizens become firearm owners, long standing ranges are being stressed to accommodate all potential users. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has reported a 56 percent increase in target shooting between 2012 and 2022.
This increased usage is being further exacerbated when ranges are forced to shut down in a particular area, forcing those who would otherwise have utilized the facility to go to another which may already be at capacity.
Partners like NSSF and the NRA are helping public ranges expand and modernize by utilizing a 90% matching construction fund through the Wildlife Restoration Trust Fund to meet the increase in demand. However, growth and local regulations regarding noise ordinances or lead may be outpacing those efforts in particular regions.
With suburban sprawl, there has been an increase in complaints, lawsuits, and an effort from newcomers to join town and community government in an attempt to pass malicious ordinances focusing on lead abatement, noise violations, operating time restrictions, and restrictions on growth and expansion of ranges. Where ranges were once more isolated, residences have been building up faster and many new homeowners do not like the sounds of the local range regardless of years of prior operation.
The issue of lead has also become a popular malicious tool for anti-firearm advocates to try and close local ranges. Lead abatement has been a serious consideration since President Nixon signed Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act in December of 1970. Federal regulations exist to maintain a safe environment for the land and local people. However, newer, more onerous, proposed lead abatement regulations go far beyond professional requirements in an attempt to cost ranges significant fees or be unable to operate under overly aggressive guidelines.
Suffolk County Skeet, Trap and Sporting Clays range in Suffolk County, New York lost a legal fight due to noise ordinances in November 2019 and has had to navigate these new ordinances with a threat of ceasing operations. Similar stories can be heard throughout the region with numerous ranges battling noise ordinances, despite those ranges operating for years prior to supposed issues. Ranges in the Hudson Valley of New York have also seen countless attempts to minimize time of operations of a range, or complete dissolvement of the range due to newcomers proposing regulations on the municipal level.
It is important for hunters, recreational shooters, and other range users to be mindful of the impact of municipal and local regulations and ordinances. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) utilizes local ranges to help teach legislators about hunting and shooting sports and is regularly keeping an eye on state and federal regulatory issues. Those who use a local range need to remain vigilant of town and county affairs to make sure your range is not impacted by these new attempts to regulate out of existence public shooting ranges. Like Maine, states in the Northeast should consider legislative protections to maintain essential range operations for hunters, recreational shooters, and the continued recruitment of new participants in the shooting sports.
