You Can’t Make It Up: FL Legislature Moves to Fund NRA Gun Range, Won’t Support Gun Safety

You Can’t Make It Up: FL Legislature Moves to Fund NRA Gun Range, Won’t Support Gun Safety 

How do Richard Corcoran and Joe Negron sleep at night?

Florida Politics: Legislature signs off $3m to build shooting range, co-funded by NRA

At a time when the National Rifle Association is at forefront of the Legislature’s mind, House and Senate budget writers Friday morning agreed to putError! Hyperlink reference not valid., which is funded in part by the controversial group fighting gun bills.

The money to build the public shooting range sports park in Palm Beach County would go to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which is helping build the facility in partnership with the county and the NRA.

Phase one of the construction project was completed in June 2017.

The total cost of the project is not yet known, but once completed it is expected to be one of the largest shooting sports facilities in Florida with five Olympic trap fields, five rifle and pistol shooting ranges and nine skeet fields. When the facility opens, it will be supervised by range safety officers and volunteers.

“This center is being created to offer target shooting enthusiasts a place to gain skills and knowledge for safe, responsible firearm handling and target shooting,” the 

Memos on construction plans note “recreational target shooting is a big business in Florida” and that the “sporting arms ammunition industry supports 14,850 jobs and generates $695 million in wages.”

Ever since the Parkland school shooting took place on Valentine’s Day and the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott unveiled their school safety initiatives, NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer has spoken against the gun restrictions attached to the plans, arguing they punish “law-abiding gun owners.”

Some of the unprecedented gun restrictions for the state under consideration include banning the sale of bump stocks, three-day waiting periods for all gun purchases in the state and raising the age limit to buy rifles and assault-type weapons to 21 years old.