Public shooting ranges are a valuable community resource, offering a safe, accessible environment to practice the shooting sports without the barrier of exorbitant range fees or membership dues at exclusive sportsman's clubs.

Unfortunately, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has placed burdensome and unnecessary restrictions on the use of public shooting ranges in the state. Shooters at MI DNR ranges may not a) load more than six rounds in a magazine, regardless of the actual capacity of the magazine, with range safety officers having absolute discretion to revoke the "privilege" of loading more than a single round into the gun at a time; b) fire more than one shot every three seconds; or c) draw pistols from a holster.

While the MI DNR argues that these onerous restrictions have been implemented for safety, there is no legitimate safety reason to limit the number of rounds a shooter may have loaded in a magazine, force shooters to shoot at a cadence which many find unnaturally and uncomfortably slow, or forbid shooters from practicing the skill of drawing a pistol from a holster, vital for those who intend to carry a pistol for the lawful purpose of self-defense.

Shooters at private ranges and clubs throughout the state routinely and safely load magazines to capacity and practice shooting drills which include drawing holstered pistols and rapidly engaging targets with multiple rounds, and there is no reason shooters at public ranges, under the supervision of properly trained range safety personnel, cannot and should not be allowed to do the same. 

These restrictions only discourage shooters from patronizing public ranges in favor of private ranges which do not restrict these common and safe shooting practices, thus endangering the future of public ranges in the state and threatening the ability of those who lack the means to frequent private ranges to access the shooting sports.

We call on the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to eliminate these restrictive rules and implement more reasonable safety protocols at Michigan's public shooting ranges.