Once again, hunters and recreational shooters stepped up to support wildlife conservation.
According to a news release from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, firearm and ammunition manufacturers paid a record-setting $300,498,588.23 in the first quarter of 2022. That is the highest-ever collection of excise taxes for the first quarter of any year and brings the total contributions to Pittman-Robertson excise taxes to more than $15.3 billion since the establishment of the act in 1937.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has long maintained that Hunting Is Conservation, thanks to the taxes hunters paid on rifles, ammo and archery equipment. Funding generated from excise taxes on that equipment is then doled out to state wildlife agencies for conservation work, wildlife management, expanding public access and other projects.
Pittman-Robertson excise taxes are among very few taxes that remain in a government “lockbox.” In other words, they do not go into the general fund but are set apart specifically for wildlife conservation purposes.
In 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service distributed more than $1.5 billion to the states for conservation.
Hunters and recreational shooters support conservation when they buy their products and combined with the sale of hunting licenses, stamps and fees, makes hunters and recreational shooters the greatest contributor to wildlife conservation.
(Photo credit: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation)