Posted on 02/23/2024 2:34:20 PM PST by DoodleBob
A township ordinance that limits firing guns to indoor and outdoor shooting ranges and zoning that significantly restricts where the ranges can be located does not violate the Second Amendment, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The man who challenged Stroud Township's gun laws, Jonathan Barris, began to draw complaints about a year after he moved to the home in the Poconos in 2009 and installed a shooting range on his 5-acre property. An officer responding to a complaint said the range had a safe backstop but the targets were in line with a large box store in a nearby shopping center.
In response to neighbors' concerns, the Stroud Township Board of Supervisors in late 2011 passed what the courts described as a “discharge ordinance," restricting gunfire to indoor and outdoor gun ranges, as long as they were issued zoning and occupancy permits. It also said guns couldn't be fired between dusk and dawn or within 150 feet of an occupied structure — with exceptions for self-defense, by farmers, by police or at indoor firing ranges.
The net effect, wrote Justice Kevin Dougherty, was to restrict the potential construction of shooting ranges to about a third of the entire township. Barris' home did not meet those restrictions.
Barris sought a zoning permit after he was warned he could face a fine as well as seizure of the gun used in any violation of the discharge ordinance. He was turned down for the zoning permit based on the size of his lot, proximity to other homes and location outside the two permissible zoning areas for ranges.
A county judge ruled for the township, but Commonwealth Court in 2021 called the discharge ordinance unconstitutional, violative of Barris' Second Amendment rights.
In a friend-of-the-court brief, the Pennsylvania attorney general's office aligned with the township, arguing that numerous laws across U.S. history have banned shooting guns or target practice in residential or populated areas.
Dougherty, writing for the majority, said Stroud Township's discharge ordinance “is fully consistent with this nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." He included pages of examples, saying that "together they demonstrate a sustained and wide-ranging effort by municipalities, cities, and states of all stripes — big, small, urban, rural, Northern, Southern, etc. — to regulate a societal problem that has persisted since the birth of the nation."
In a dissent, Justice Sallie Updyke Mundy said Barris has a constitutional right to “achieve competency or proficiency in keeping arms for self-defense at one's home,” and that the Second Amendment's core self-defense protections are at stake.
There used to be a shooting range below the House of Lord until it was closed in 2015.
I guess it is a faggotry dungeon now.
This is a tough one...
With nearest neighbors, etc., there are a lot of common sense factors that have to be considered...
One of my grandsons live lives in a residential area with one-acre lots and almost every one on the street has a backyard range...
Of course all those lots back up into hills which are part of a state forest preserve...
Another grandson lives on a very large farm and has extensive range accommodations up to 700-yards...
“Sorry...go to a gun range.”
You’re a Yankee aren’t you?
Had my hunting license at 18....I'm an 80 year old woman now.
Sounds like an ex post facto law and/or a bill of attainder.
“..I’m an 80 year old woman now.”
Good for you! Hang in there! :) I’m only 74.
We have 5.5 acres in N GA and have a shooting range back stopped into the ridge. Its perfectly safe. Everybody around us has large tracts and they all shoot on their property. In fact looking forward to shooting this weekend in rural free Georgia.
My CA girlfriend visited us in TN, and we would occasionally hear gunshots when we were sitting on the porch. She was surprised that it didn’t bother me. I told her “it’s the sound of freedom. I love it. I never felt so safe.”
PA has outdoor ranges at state gamelands
Used to shoot there when lived on PA
My Kimber 1911 “Eclipse Target II” .45cal ACP will surely like it just fine, but the hi-po long guns won’t.
In Texas, each county makes rules regarding shooting ranges, hunting, etc and the acreage and safety requirements. In this one, there are many areas of small acreage lots-2-7 acres owned by people who operate small businesses there like RV parks, snowbird cabins as well as small mechanic shops, hauling companies, keep livestock, etc, as well as a couple of gated enclaves nearby on the river-hence the acreage requirement. There are three small locally owned gun ranges within a couple of miles that cater to locals-one owned by our volunteer fire dept.
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court is a Democrat organization.
“ Had my hunting license at 18....I’m an 80 year old woman now.”
You’re only 18, with 62 years of experience. 😁
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