I think a lot of people are blaming "the big, bad Government" for what are actually Free Market costs for hunting and shooting.
It is a terrible thing how today the government has made the hunting licenses so expensive, that poor people can't afford to hunt anymore.
Here in TX, it's $23 for a Resident Hunting License, $6 if you're a Senior. I find it hard to believe that the one government-related fee is going to stop folks, considering a hunter probably spends more than that on gasoline, ammo, and snacks to take with.
Further, the real expense of hunting in TX comes from the
lack of government land. Most of TX is private land, so to hunt you either have to know a landowner or pay one money. So, ironically, the lack of goverment intervention in buying up private land for public use is what raises the costs.
if you can't ban it, make it prohibitively expensive.
I'd say that also more "bogey man" blaming. How is the government working hard to make shooting more expensive? There's an excise tax on new firearms, but it's not immoderately large. And it doesn't apply to used guns, so nothing's stopping someone from buying a Marlin 30-30 for $195 at a pawnshop (like I did two years back). There's a tax on ammo, but good hunting ammo can still be had under a dollar a shot, and cheaper still if you handload. For plinking and FMJ loads, the current increases in prices are based on... yep, the Free Market. Brass and lead went up in price last year, and the manufacturers want to make some profit back now that commodities are settling down, and since demand is high they've had no incentive to lower prices.
The impediments the government puts in the way of shooting and owning guns in the U.S. are so minor compared to most industrialised nations. I'm not saying that less regulation wouldn't be even better (especially if we could buy suppressors without that $200 tax), but to go blaming every possible woe on "The Government" regardless of actual fact does nothing to help our cause.
Blame Caesar for what is Caesar's, but blame him for what he does, rather than for every hassle you encounter in life.