Financial Returns To Industry From The Federal Aid - Wildlife and ...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Since 1932, firearms and ammunition manufacturers have paid a federal excise on the
products they manufacture.
However, until 1937 these funds were deposited in the general treasury of the United
States and did not directly benefit manufacturers. In that year, sportsmen and
businesses teamed with conservation-minded policy makers to redirect these existing
excise taxes to the new Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Program, which has
continued ever since.
The concept of redirecting these taxes to benefit wildlife populations was simple: By
investing in improvements to wildlife populations and public access, more people would
go hunting and the sales of items that generated this tax would increase.
This partnership between the hunting and shooting-sports industries, hunters, and state
and federal wildlife agencies has restored many wildlife populations to unimaginable
numbers and provides an incredible array of hunting opportunities, as documented in
this text.
Today, there are more than twice as many hunters than there were in 1937. Purchases
of tax related items by hunters have increased by nearly 45% in constant dollars since
1970.
Fueling this growth, in part, has been the reliable funding that was provided by the
excise tax. In 2009, excise taxes on hunting equipment totaled $484,765,728 from
sales of firearms, archery equipment and ammunition. These taxes are distributed to
the states to invest in projects that improve wildlife populations, provide improved
access to the huntable lands, or to develop shooting-sports facilities -- in short, to
increase the number of recreational hunting and shooting opportunities.
However, as with any capital investment that a business makes, companies want to
know the quantitative return received from this investment. To help answer this, an
analysis was conducted at the national and local levels using actual data on excise
taxes invested and hunter purchases of excise-tax related products. This analysis
revealed the following long-term and short-term insights about the returns from the
excise taxes paid by firearm and ammunition manufacturers:
Long Term Benefits:
In 1937, 11 states had no open seasons for deer and three others had
only local seasons. Virtually all of the remaining states had far more restrictive
seasons than enjoyed today. Examples of hunting then compared to now
include:
Missouri's deer season was only three days long, and only 108 deer
were harvested. In 2009, hunters in the Show Me state hunted deer for