Good Neighbor Firearms Ordinance Workgroup Meeting Summary

For your information, attached please find a summary of the Good Neighbor Firearms Ordinance Workgroup meeting that was held on January 20, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. Once the next meeting has been scheduled, a notice will be sent out with this information.

Sincerely,

Paula G. Woodard

Clerk to the Board

Johnston County ~ 207 E. Johnston Street ~ PO Box 1049

Smithfield, North Carolina 27577 ~ Ph: (919) 989-5100

www.JohnstonNC.com

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Good Neighbors Firearms Ordinance Work Group

Meeting Summary

January 20, 2011

Members Present: Mr. Allen Mims, Chairman; Mr. Jeff Carver, Vice-Chairman; Mr. Buck Pipkin; Mr. Rick Hester; Mr. Berry Gray; Mr. Jeff Lawrence; Mr. Jake McAllister; Mr. Stephen Reeves; Mr. John Reid; and Mr. Mike Stancil.

The Good Neighbors Firearms Ordinance Workgroup met at 6:00 pm on January 20, 2011 in the Emergency Operations Center located in the Johnston County Courthouse Law Enforcement Building.

Chairman Allen Mims opened the meeting by providing a history of the proposed firearms ordinance and he explained that the draft ordinance has not been heard by the Board of County Commissioners. He stated that the Board of Commissioners have received several complaints from residents who have experienced problems with careless neighbors shooting within major subdivisions and dense areas. He also clarified that the purpose of the Workgroup is to discuss the ordinance to see if changes can be made to address all concerned parties.

Each of the citizen representatives of the workgroup expressed their concerns with the proposed Ordinance and provided suggestions. These concerns and suggestions included the following:

• Concern with creating an ordinance to prohibit shooting because of a few non-responsible citizens.
• This issue can be addressed in the noise ordinance without prohibiting shooting outright.
• Suggested regulating shooting using hours and not under influence of drugs or alcohol.
• Concern with the definition which includes bb guns and bow and arrows. Suggested to use ATF definition instead.
• Concern with how the ordinance would affect hunting.
• Suggested the ordinance not include a distance.
• The ordinance should emphasize that the projectile should not leave the property or impact the property of another and that carelessness should be addressed instead of setting a distance.
• Concern with the difficulty of enforcing a 600’ distance.
• General Statute already addresses safety issues; therefore, why create another law.

There was discussion on what other jurisdictions do, which range from regulating the bullet leaving the property, to setting a distance.

There was also discussion on the limitations that the Sheriff’s Office has with current enforcement and concerns with enforcement of the proposed ordinance.

There was brief discussion on the need for a County shooting range, but it was decided that the subject would need more discussion at a later time.

The audience members were then allowed to ask questions and make comments.

The County staff will review the ordinance again with consideration given to the comments of the Workgroup and will reconvene at a future date, to be announced.

The Workgroup meeting ended at 7:30 pm.

Note: This is a brief summary and is not a verbatim description of the workgroup session.