Shooting sports advocates say now is the time to increase public access to shooting ranges before they become an endangered species.

Sen. Mark Udall has his sights set on passing The Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act to funnel more money toward building and maintaining public shooting ranges on government-owned land.

“Shooting ranges have become scarce in Colorado, both on and off public lands, and the ones that remain are often poorly maintained. There’s an obvious need for this legislation and a lot of support from outdoors groups and people worried about the impacts of dispersed shooting,” Udall said.

“It would be a triple win for the sporting and conservation communities: states can create higher quality and safer shooting ranges, more Coloradans can take up the sport, and it would generate more money for future conservation and hunter education efforts,” he said.

Udall, D-Colo., introduced similar legislation in 2008 and 2009.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife has worked with federal agencies to help establish organized, safe ranges, division spokesman Randy Hampton said. During the past 10 years, the department has seen the number of ranges decline.

“Generally, ranges are closed because of urban growth. People move in close to the ranges, and all of a sudden, the property value goes up and is more valuable as a subdivision,” Hampton said.

Ranges also are faced with the challenge of installing costly noise control and safety barriers when people move closer, Hampton said.

Udall’s proposal, reintroduced June 22, would let states charge the federal government for 90 percent of the cost of acquiring land for shooting ranges, instead of the current 75 percent — using money from a federal tax on hunting equipment.

“Those consumers ought to see a return on their investments,” said Lawrence Keane, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Most ammunition sales come from shooting sports. Creating more opportunities for people to shoot would mean more money going back into the ranges, he said.

The shooting foundation does not have an exact count on how many public shooting ranges there are in Colorado. However, conversations with range owners, sportsmen groups and consumers have revealed concern for the dwindling number, Keane said.

The state issues an average of 300,000 hunting permits per year, Hampton said. Many of those hunters use the ranges — much like golfers use a driving range — to practice using their weapons and calibrate their gun sights for an upcoming hunting season.

The Family Shooting Center at Cherry Creek State Park is one of the public ranges hunters use. Last year there were 46,000 visitors to the range.

The range is on government property but is ineligible for the type of funds in Udall’s proposal, owner Doug Hamilton said.

The taxes collected off sporting goods cannot be used to bolster a privately owned business.

“I appreciate what Udall is doing with his initiative, but it would be nice if taxes collected off commercial business could be returned to commercial business,” he said.

The Family Shooting Center did receive a grant from the Division of Wildlife in 2010 for improvements on the range. However, that money came out of the division’s coffers, not Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act dollars.

Denver-based Bull Moose Sportsmen’s Alliance co-founders Gaspar Perricone and Tim Mauck were in Washington, D.C., last week to lobby Congress to support Udall’s bill.

“Marksmanship training is a step in the right direction to continue the Western tradition and heritage of outdoor shooting activities on public lands,” Perricone said.

“Those opportunities are becoming more limited. As a result, Udall has taken initiative to give states flexibility to develop more.”

Caitlin Gibbons: 303-954-1638 or cgibbons@denverpost.com