Congratulations, Northern Arizona! Shooting enthusiasts and law enforcement in Northern Arizona are one giant step closer to having the shooting range they deserve.
On Saturday, May 15th, The Arizona Game and Fish Commission unanimously voted to approve the purchase of the 160 acre Foster Ranch property for the development of a Northern Arizona shooting range.
AZ Game and Fish’s efforts to establish a range in the Flagstaff area began way back in 1998, and the approval is great news to all the people and organizations that have worked tirelessly for almost a decade to make this happen.
Flagstaff is the largest city in Arizona without a public shooting range, which leaves recreational shooters with few options, and forces law enforcement in Flagstaff to train at a makeshift range at a cinder pit in Winona, Arizona.
The Foster Ranch site is about 10 miles southeast of Flagstaff, and meets the Arizona Game and Fish’s objective of developing a shooting range located within 30 minutes of downtown Flagstaff by the year 2013. The purchase price of the land is 1.1 million dollars, which is entirely funded through a user pay, user benefit model (read – ZERO Arizona general fund tax dollars).
A request for the purchase of the land now goes to the Arizona Governor’s office for approval (the state doesn’t fund shooting ranges, they merely approve, or disapprove, the budget plan created by the AZ Game and Fish Commission). We are very hopeful that their approval will be swift in order to reach the 2013 goal.
