Email a Friend
Reader Reaction
RSS
digg it
Printer Friendly
Mobile Alerts
Sphere IT
Save This PageThe jolting gunfire from a neighbor's property would scare Mike Campbell's two daughters to the point that they wouldn't play outside.
Campbell and other residents of Buckwood Lane in Hanover County were outraged by rifle fire that would sometimes last an hour at a time. The noise coming from a property off Georgetown Road stopped in recent weeks after Campbell complained.
"When you can't put your kid down for a nap because of the shooting, I've got a problem with that," said Campbell, whose daughters are 4 and 7. He said he appreciates that the shooting has stopped.
Rules on recreational shooting and discharging firearms vary from locality to locality in the Richmond area. In Hanover, firearm-related clashes of rural and suburban lifestyles have prompted county officials to explore ways to balance safety and noise concerns with the rights of gun owners to practice target shooting on their land.
A Weapons Safety Committee established by Hanover's Board of Supervisors will formally make several recommendations to the supervisors at their meeting Wednesday. The proposed changes would not affect legally permitted firing ranges.
The eight-member committee includes two county supervisors, as well as gun enthusiasts and residents with gun-related concerns. Committee members will urge the board to enact the following:
People accused of violating the proposed noise ordinance could face a misdemeanor criminal charge. A judge would determine whether such shooting constitutes an unreasonable disturbance.
Hanover Supervisor Charles D. McGhee, chairman of the weapons committee, said the recommendations are meant to address complaints from residents who say they can't go to sleep or hear their televisions because of gunfire.
"They think the county's a quiet place, and they have an expectation -- whether real or perceived -- that it's supposed to be really quiet," McGhee said.
"Hanover County is not like it was in 1965," he added. "You didn't have the culture clashes."
The Hanover sheriff's office received 139 reports of "promiscuous shooting" from Jan. 1 through Friday of this year. Authorities received 339 such reports last year.
Bryan Law lives on the 15-acre property off Georgetown Road near the Campbells. His son and a friend were practicing their shooting skills with an AK-47 assault rifle and a World War II bolt-action rifle, he said, and they have since joined the military.
Law said that after neighbors complained, he agreed to fire only his smaller and quieter .22-caliber rifle, which Campbell doesn't object to.
"I try to really get along with all the neighbors," Law said. "I understand their complaints."
He said he does not believe that the recommended changes would affect his ability to shoot his .22-caliber rifle on his property, although the larger weapons might violate the proposed amendment to the noise ordinance. Law said he might have to move his usual shooting location somewhere else on his property to make sure it is at least 200 yards from a neighbor's house.
Residents also have complained about the Meeks family in the 6000 block of Rural Point Road. Allen Meeks was convicted last year of shooting within 100 yards of a road.
He also was charged with disturbing the peace after a neighbor swore out a warrant against him, but he was acquitted of that charge. He said he moved his target area farther behind his house, down a hill in a dense wooded area, to make sure it was 100 yards away.
But Meeks won't be able to target shoot on his property at all if the supervisors approve the recommendation banning recreational shooting in the urban service area, which Meeks lives in.
"There's a lot of people out there trying to take those rights away," Meeks said. "It's not fair."
Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or rwilliams@timesdispatch.com.
