Don't visit St. Paul Minnesota - they are banning archery within the city limits.

Word to the wise, if you are hoping to do archery in St. Paul Minnesota be advised that the city does not have an archery range and city council is currently set to ban archery within the city limits (except at licensed archery ranges), in which case there aren't any archery ranges in the city of St. Paul.

It all started when some nosy neighbour made a complaint about a neighbor practicing archery in their backyard - because when you don't have an archery range, your backyard or garage are your next best option.

So the knee jerk reaction from Council Member Russ Stark is to ban the practice of archery within the city limits, except for permitted classes and archery ranges. The problem is there aren't any archery ranges in St. Paul.

Thus local archery enthusiasts have testified before the St. Paul City Council Wednesday against their planned crackdown on backyard bows and arrows, trying to convince them that a ban would hurt the local archery industry.

"By making this illegal, you're essentially killing my business," said Cameron Christian-Weir, a longtime professional bow maker based on Standish Street. "There is no way I can go out and test my bows unless there is (a range) made in a public park that is accessible to me."

Fellow archery enthusiast James Henderson said St. Paul was moving against the tide by effectively outlawing an increasingly popular sport. He noted that Minneapolis has three ranges, and many suburbs such as Arden Hills, Maple Grove and Lauderdale also maintain private or public ranges. He pointed to studies that show archery ranks somewhere between tennis and bowling in terms of injury rates (and those injuries are typically "archer's elbow", aka tennis elbow).

What is more is banning archery from the city will also certainly decrease archery tourism to the area. Not that they care, but still - banning archery sets a bad precedent for other cities.

If they want to ban archery in backyards they should at least build an archery range where people can legally practice.

;)