I’ve always loved having the argument in my pocket that gun sales are good for Bambi. This California outlet points out that rising gun sales have been VERY good for Bambi in the last few months.
According to a federal report, in the last three months of 2008, the amount of money paid into the fund spiked 31 percent, as compared to the year before. Nearly all of the increase was due to increased handgun production.
Of course, I keep that argument on hand mostly for the folks who sit on the fence or aren’t typically on our side but could be swayed by it. I also realize that the excise tax money can go for public ranges, which some states are quite good about. (Florida and Arizona come to mind.) Hopefully that means in the next couple of years, we’ll see vast improvements in range quality. (It’s going to take a while since the feds only disperse the money once a year and most states don’t have much money to kick in the 25% they are required to pay for projects. It’s not “free” money for them and they can’t print more if they feel like it.)
For the FY2008, money distributed to the states & territories totaled nearly $310 million. It will be interesting to see how much is available by the end of FY2009.