This is probably a result of a hunting accident here in VIRGINIA recently. A hunter fired a round into a pre-school. No one got hurt, and he was well beyond the 150 yard limit VA has, but he still must have been an idiot to fire in the direction of the school. “That squirrel was so big that I couldn’t see what was behind it,” I’m sure he told his hunting buddies. The MD guys realized they have the same law and used this incident to boost the “bullet-free” zone.
150 yards with a high-powered rifle is a very makeable shot. I’ve hit a coyote at 225 yards. You just don’t want to be shooting anywhere around a building. Plenty of open land in this country.
At all the hunting camps I’ve been to, the rule is the same. Your gun is unloaded before you get within at least a quarter of a mile of the camp.
There simply is no excuse for not knowing what is behind your target. In the vicinity of buildings, that can be a person you don’t notice.
Hunting is fun, but it’s no fun to be shot by an idiot.