Posted on 03/17/2006 9:29:47 AM PST by stevio
Man has range in yard. Bushkill Twp. officials to revisit creating ordinance regulating recreational shooting.
The arrival of police officers at the Bushkill Township house was hardly a surprise. Nearly every time Alan Birtchet or his sons have fired guns in their backyard practice range since moving in a year ago, neighbors have called police, and Saturday was no exception.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcall.com ...
Note to self: When I eventually 'settle down', be sure to buy at least 100 acres. Hopefully THAT will be plenty big enough that I can shoot on my own land without some liberal carpet-bagging asshat calling the cops.
I consider the shooters' behavior to be rude and inconsiderate. If if was me doing the shooting, I would ASK my neighbors before shooting, and either not do it if it bothered them, or try to arrange an agreed upon time when it would cause the least amount of disturbance.
The 2nd Amendment stops when the noise invades the neighbors'homes.
Probably more gunfire in their old neighborhoods than the new.
Settle down in Texas. Our legislature last year passed a law saying that cities may not enforce their firearm ordinances in any piece of land annexed after 1991 of over 50 acres. They also may not enforce any firearm ordinances relating to shotguns, crossbow, or airguns in any piece of land over 10 acres. Passed in both the house and senate unanimously. Rick Perry was more than happy to sign...
I think Texas would be a fine state to live in, but I would have a hard time ever leaving Mississippi =)
The guy's got 15 acres! I doubt any noise ordinance is being violated.
It is unlikely that the basketball caused her problems due to the distance away from the location of the hoop (other side of the complex) when my neighbors back door was less than 100 feet way. There door would be open and they did not notice it. I forgot to mention that the complex backed up to I-71 just outside of Columbus, OH which was even louder.
Actually Cobra64, if they only knew you were THINKING about a gun, they would be dismayed.
Clearly, the neighbors wouldn't be complaining about noise if it didn't exist. If the police never found anyone shooting when receiving complaints, it probably means that the neighbors were simply making up stories. The fact that the police did find the people to be firing their weapons after receiving complaints indicates to me that the offenders were causing a noise problem.
It is people like these shooters that give all gun owners a bad name. A little courtesy goes a long ways, and now you may see a new ordinance that affects all gun owners in the township, and not just these offenders.
A lot of people here have basically said "to heck with neighbors, let's do whatever we want". If it was me, I would try to have good relations with my neighbors and not make enemies out of them.
As hard as this is to believe, I stayed at a Homewood Suites Hotel in a suburb north of Boston and there was a pistol range behind the hotel. I would always hear gunfire late the afternoon and on weekends on days when the weather was tolerable. Being from Arizona I find the sound of gunfire soothing as long as I know it's not directed at me.
The town solicitor said it's a clash of two cultures. I read that as recently arrived city folk vs. people who are used to living in the country. The newly arrived should not try to impose their culture on the area they have moved to. Sounds to me like they are the bad neighbors, not him.
Yes, and the douchebag bourgeious McMansion dwellers of Bushkill certainly qualify as the latter.
If it were up to me, shooting on private property would ALWAYS be legal provided 1. Your yard does not immediately abut another's in a small space 2. There are no barriers, natural or manmade, between your range and your neighbors.
I'm STILL looking for a place to shoot bottles with buckshot. However, I don't think my apartment nor the streets of Seattle would be an ideal environment. Might hit some liberals...
I knew that. I was being facetious to the other poster! That's why I goofed on him that my house covers 20 acres based on his definition of an acre.
When I first read his post, I thought he said 210 square feet too. But he said 210 feet square - i.e. a square with sides 210 feet long. That's 44,100 square feet - roughly, as he said, an acre.
I'll be headed to the Lehigh Valley, in Guthsville, in July for the PA State IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) match.
Hope the neighbors don't mind.
My daughters in laws live there. It's been called that forever.
It's kind of mixed use. Very hilly (It is in the Pocono "Mountains". Except in the few higher density developments, it wouldn't be too hard to set up a range where a large chunk of terra firma, that is the side of large hill, would be your backstop.
But here is the real problemo:
''When Bushkill Township was a rural place, this was never really a problem,'' township solicitor Gary Asteak said. ''We're experiencing the clash of two cultures.''
And you can bet the shooter(s) were there first
Birtchet moved to Bushkill from Montgomery County in part because of the rural nature and to be able to hunt, shoot and enjoy his property. ''I invested heavily in the process of creating a range with a backdrop that was suitable,'' he said, adding that it cost roughly $7,000. He pointed out he never shoots early in the morning or late at night.
The solution is simple, if you don't like the idea of your neighbors having guns, which is really what they are objecting to,
Not nearly so much, assuming similar muzzle devices (or lack thereof). My .308 has a brake, rather than a flash hider, and that does tend to increase the perceived noise.
Of course, if the Feds would let people have suppressors, like are required in Finland, there wouldn't be a noise problem. But oh no, those are only used by "Gangsters" and "terrorists", so the citizens can't be allowed to have them, no matter how many eardrums it would save.
In Germany they even have suppressors for artillery pieces, 'course they are the size of a small house.
Like he said, a square about 210 feet on a side.
Actually 208.71032557111303591192697393256 feet on a side, but who's counting that close? ;).
Square root of 43,560 is that number above. A 210 feet by 210 feet square has an area of 44,100 square feet.
Personally I can envision a 210 foot square (or better yet 70 yards) easier than 43,560 square feet.
Speaking of shooting in the back yard, or in this case the front/side yard:
Y'all should have seen the eyes of my granddaughters other grandfather (who lives in that other Bushkill PA, who moved out from living across the river in NJ from NYC, when I showed him my .45 which I'd had in the car while traveling back from our kids' wedding, but which I hadn't told him about. You'd have thought it was going to jump out and bite him. Heck, I was just moving it from the trunk to the passenger compartment (while in the parking lot of the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco) It was always legal, even in Nebraska and Kansas where I was just transporting it pursuant to the FOPA. I could have transferred (and loaded it of course)it in Oklahoma, because my Texas CHL is good there as well.
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