The Trump administration is making a statement about guns on its way out the door through Grand Junction.

Thursday, the last day of year, the Bureau of Land Management announced “guidance” that reinforces recreational shooting. The agency concedes that the activity is already allowed on 99% of the 245 million acres it manages.

“Recreational shooting is a longstanding tradition for millions of Americans, and the Department is proud to support this popular pastime as a key component of the BLM’s multiple-use mission,” Casey Hammond, principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management, said in a statement.

“Working with local communities, our state agency partners, and other key stakeholders, we will continue to ensure that public lands remain open to recreational shooting, allowing Americans to pass down our nation’s rich outdoor heritage to future generations.”

BLM explained that its directive – which isn’t binding when the Biden administration takes charge after Jan. 20 – “provides additional clarity” to federal land managers considering recreational shooting as part of its planning.

The agency, with its national headquarters in Grand Junction, cited the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act, which passed last year to better manage public lands.

President Trump clashed publicly and bitterly with the new law’s namesake, the late congressman from Michigan, making a joke at a rally that Dingell might have gone to hell after his death in February 2019. Dingell once tweeted to Trump “Sit on it, you imbecile,” in regard to his proposed steel slat border wall.

Federal law already prohibits discharging a gun within 150 yards of a residence, campsite, developed recreational area or public road.

It was President Obama who signed a law in 2010 to allow loaded firearms into Rocky Mountain National Park and other national parks, as well as allowing passengers to carry guns in checked bags on Amtrak trains.

Gun-control advocates have fretted the expansion ever since.

“When you are at a campfire and people are getting loud and boisterous next to you, you used to have to worry about them quieting down,” Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told NBC News at the time. “Now you have to worry about when they will start shooting.”

Federal and state land managers need to worry about more than a stray bullet wounding or killing someone, however.

Errant bullets against a rock can be the flint needed for a wildfire, a constant plague across the West, prompting some states to put in temporary shooting restrictions – some that have lasted for decades.

The government has tried to push recreational shooters – essentially target practice and competitions – onto a handful of developed shooting ranges.

In 2019 Trump signed the Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act, a National Rifle Association-backed law to promote firearm safety and training while putting tax dollars into the development and construction of public shooting ranges.

The Dingell law cites unspecified management of recreational shooting, as well as national monuments, wilderness areas, historic sites, wildland fire prevention and response, as well as land swaps and acquisitions.

BLM released a statement from Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Thursday.

“This guidance from the Bureau of Land Management is enthusiastically welcomed by America’s sportsmen and women,” the trade association leader stated. “It will help to ensure and increase recreational shooting access and opportunities on public lands and preserve the important gains for sportsmen and women achieved during the Trump Administration through the leadership of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.”

Bernhardt grew up in Rifle. He has spoken to NRA meetings on occasion.

After Trump took office, he appointed Susan LaPierre, the wife of leader Wayne LaPierre, to the interior’s board of the National Parks Foundation, which supports park programs.

In January, Bernhardt tweeted, “Respecting the Second Amendment is fundamental to our constitutional republic. We’re expanding opportunities to enjoy hunting and recreational shooting on our wonderful public lands.”

Given the controversial nature of guns, the comment drew plenty of reaction on both sides.

“How unfortunate that you are trying to appeal to Trump’s voter base by playing on their fears of losing 2nd Amendment rights,” replied Marilyn Williams, an animal rights activist from Minnesota. “Why don’t you try and gain support and approval from people who want to view wildlife and not kill it?”

Keane continued, “This guidance will enable our American hunting and shooting tradition and heritage as well as wildlife conservation to thrive for generations to come.”

In Colorado, like many other states, money for conservation depends on licenses and other state and federal fees paid by hunters and other recreational visitors.

Dianna Muller, founder of the DC Project, Women for Gun Rights, said the move was about preserving rights.

“With upwards of 8 million brand new gun owners in 2020, it’s going to be important that they have a place to practice their skill set and enjoy the outdoors with their family,” said Miller, a retired police officer. “Recreational shooting is great because the whole family can participate, and the injuries are substantially less than other organized sports.”