I ran across a new regulation this weekend.
I have mentioned here before that I have a young friend my daughter's age who is a native of Belgium and now lives in Germany. She has visited for extended periods, and my wife and I have become quite fond of her. On her first visit, she accepted an invitation to go to a pistol range with us, and she proved to be quite a quick learner. On each of her subsequent two visits, she said soon after her arrival that she wanted to go shooting again if we would take her, and we cheerfully obliged.
It had been three years since her last visit, and in looking at the website of a new range, closer to my daughter and son-in-law's house and therefore more convenient for our plan for that day, we saw that foreign nationals were required to purchase a hunting license to use the range. We had not encountered that before, so my daughter called to confirm the requirement, and was told that it was a federal requirement, and that she could purchase any hunting license at any site (and the range personnel actually recommended WalMart, Bass Pro, or Academy as places to purchase the license) but that they had to enforce the federal regulation.
Since it was not required by my local range on her previous two visits, I wonder: Is it a new law? Or was it something that didn't get enforced on her previous visits three and six years ago? I am pretty well known at my local range, enough so that I am never asked for ID. The possibility occurred to me that, because she was with me, they never asked for her ID, and thus didn't realize that she was a foreign national, and in turn unwittingly violated the regulation.
I don't think this was an attempt by the range to run up the bill, because they encouraged us to buy the license elsewhere. If this regulation is real, what is its purpose? There was no safety or training requirement for the license, just filling out a form and forking up some money to the state.
Any enlightenment from those familiar with this regulation would be welcome. It was completely new to me.
(BTW, the young lady is a natural with a pistol. In less than an hour, she was again shooting fist-sized groups at 7 to 8 yards with any pistol she picked up. This was after three years with no firearms practice, and two previous sessions of an hour or so each, separated by three years. Its probably because I'm such a good teacher. That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.)
I have mentioned here before that I have a young friend my daughter's age who is a native of Belgium and now lives in Germany. She has visited for extended periods, and my wife and I have become quite fond of her. On her first visit, she accepted an invitation to go to a pistol range with us, and she proved to be quite a quick learner. On each of her subsequent two visits, she said soon after her arrival that she wanted to go shooting again if we would take her, and we cheerfully obliged.
It had been three years since her last visit, and in looking at the website of a new range, closer to my daughter and son-in-law's house and therefore more convenient for our plan for that day, we saw that foreign nationals were required to purchase a hunting license to use the range. We had not encountered that before, so my daughter called to confirm the requirement, and was told that it was a federal requirement, and that she could purchase any hunting license at any site (and the range personnel actually recommended WalMart, Bass Pro, or Academy as places to purchase the license) but that they had to enforce the federal regulation.
Since it was not required by my local range on her previous two visits, I wonder: Is it a new law? Or was it something that didn't get enforced on her previous visits three and six years ago? I am pretty well known at my local range, enough so that I am never asked for ID. The possibility occurred to me that, because she was with me, they never asked for her ID, and thus didn't realize that she was a foreign national, and in turn unwittingly violated the regulation.
I don't think this was an attempt by the range to run up the bill, because they encouraged us to buy the license elsewhere. If this regulation is real, what is its purpose? There was no safety or training requirement for the license, just filling out a form and forking up some money to the state.
Any enlightenment from those familiar with this regulation would be welcome. It was completely new to me.
(BTW, the young lady is a natural with a pistol. In less than an hour, she was again shooting fist-sized groups at 7 to 8 yards with any pistol she picked up. This was after three years with no firearms practice, and two previous sessions of an hour or so each, separated by three years. Its probably because I'm such a good teacher. That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.)