Haven’t seen much coverage on this so I figured I should share the word. The Explore Act has passed the House and the Senate with massive bipartisan support.
The bill will benefit bikers, rock climbers, shooters, OHRV operators, & more. It has special provisions to encourage access to the outdoors among people with disabilities, veterans, and the youth.
It seeks to establish new range access on federal lands, like national forests (see sec. 123). Ranges would have facilities for rifle and handgun shooting, and may include accommodations for archery and trap shooting.
Does it also create provisions against shooting in non-range areas? That’s what they did here. They said they were going to create a range, and then banned shooting at the only two popular shooting spots, then killed the range project. Now there’s nowhere to shoot except for private ranges which are far away and expensive.
More ranges would be great! I shoot on my own land, but was always turned off by the local ranges.
On the one hand, I like the idea. On the other hand, I’m concerned about reduced capacity overall when they inevitably start limiting other locations that can be used outside of the official range.
