According to the Budapest Beacon, Hungary is to invest almost 100 million USD to build shooting ranges with clubhouses.

The plan is to build no less than 197 shooting ranges in the country.

If the total investment becomes real, it means that every major county town will have a 100-meter shooting range within three years from now.

Formally, the Hungarian government has approved a request from the Ministry of Defense.

The average cost per shooting range would become around 465 000 USD, and include 25, 50 and 100-meter long shooting ranges with clubhouses.

Personally I would hope for a few 300 meter, and longer, shooting ranges as well.

There is no background information, at least that I have found, as to why the Ministry of Defense is investing in these amount of shooting ranges.

We can only speculate if it’s to encourage people to enjoy shooting more for recreational purposes, but as the Ministry of Defense is involved I’m leaning towards purposes for defense. The borders of Hungary have been quite exposed lately.

There is also a rumor that privately owned, non-hunting firearms must be stored at these be stored at these new shooting ranges. In this case a Dark cloud floats above the good news, and I hope this has nothing to do with the background.