House likely to pass shooting resort bill

The House of Representatives yesterday accepted the Senate version of the shooting resort bill, without apparent consideration on the comments made by investors over what they claimed was an outrageous pre-licensing requirement.

Korean investors who have expressed intentions to put up shooting resorts in the Northern Marianas claimed the $5 million one-time public contribution is too much a condition for setting up a business on the islands.

The House Committee on Commerce and Tourism has recommended that Senate Bill 12-095 be passed by the lower chamber, citing the Commonwealth’s potentials to attract major developers in building shooting resorts.

Committee Chair Florencio T. Deleon Guerrero said the public contribution monies derived from SB 12-095 are earmarked for medical referral, Medicaid and scholarship programs without fiscal year limitation.

“Your Committee further finds that in order to attract such establishments and allow such investment, the CNMI weapon’s law must be amended. This measure will accomplish this goal,” said Mr. Guerrero.

The proposed measure requires a shooting resort applicant to pay a one-time public contribution of $5 million to the CNMI Treasury upon submission of the application for a license.

Of this amount, $4 million will go to the Medical Referral and Medicaid matching programs, while one million dollars will go to the Commonwealth’s scholarship program.

Under the proposed measure, shooting resorts would mean a major development with an aggregate capital investment of $25 million in the Commonwealth. Of this, Rota and Tinian will receive $4 million worth of investments each.

Introduced by Sen. Edward U. Maratita, Senate Bill 12-095 amends the CNMI Weapons control Act to allow investors to develop facilities like target ranges for rifle competition, and skeet shooting in the Northern Marianas, except on Saipan.

Legislators maintain that the CNMI holds great potentials to attract major developers interested in building shooting resorts for a variety of activities that are safe, in contrast with public misconception about the dangers these facilities pose.

Once approved, the bill goes to Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio who earlier refused to sign a similar measure that would have paved the way for the construction of the multi-million-dollar shooting resorts on Saipan, Tinian and Rota.

The measure would authorize the licensing of shooting galleries and shooting resorts and to place restrictions on their operation. A shooting gallery licensee shall pay an annual fee of $5,000, and a shooting resort licensee shall pay annual fee of $15,000 per license.

Although the newest legislative measure is slowly gaining support from various sectors on Rota and Tinian, shooting resort investors still eye Saipan as the best area where the galleries should be established.

Earlier, CNMI International Shooting Resort Inc. director Kim Kyong Duk said Senate Bill 12-095 is not the answer to the governor’s decision to veto the original legislation. He said moves are now underway to prod legislators to override Mr. Tenorio’s decision and push through with the original bill.

With $25 million capital for the shooting galleries, investors are wary that gun resorts to be established on the two islands will not be able to generate as much return of investments as it would do on Saipan.

Other Korean investors on the other hand explained that putting up shooting galleries exclusively on Tinian and Rota is better than completely abandoning the business proposal. They are confident that transportation and accommodation problems will eventually be addressed.