Glenn Finch of Chalybeate Springs, North Carolina is concerned after a bullet came through his bedroom wall, ricocheted off the opposite wall and landed on his bed. He says this is the third time this year a bullet has hit his house and he blames a nearby shooting range.
"I have guns, and I support the Second Amendment," Finch said. "But I've read it. Nowhere in there does it say you can shoot into somebody's house."
Operators of the shooting range, Drake Landing, declined to discuss the issue. The local sheriff is investigating the complaint.
Other neighbors are also concerned. "Some days it sounds like a war is breaking out over there," said Kent Jeffries. "My family has lived here for generations. We're not all Yankees who just moved here and are scared by noise. But there are people here who are literally afraid to be outside."
The range was opened as a clay target shooting range in 2006 as part of the state's agritourism program, having been ruled "a bona fide farm activity" by the state agriculture commissioner, and as such is exempt from local zoning ordinances. The state also approved the addition of a pistol and rifle range three years later saying "we can see no reason why a shooting range would be any different from a sporting clays course."
The new rifle range has a two story firing bay. Signs ask shooters to not fire in the direction of residential properties.
Ohh shoot.
"we can see no reason why a shooting range would be any different from a sporting clays course."
ReplyDeleteThat's because you're idiots. Clay target shotgun loads typically use #7.5-#9 shot with a muzzle velocity somewhere around 1200 fps. Owing to the tiny cross-sectional density and aerodynamic inefficiency of small shot, these projectiles will fall to earth about 200m from where they're fired.
Rifle bullets will go for miles.