Free Daily Headlines

News

Set your text size: A A A

County expected to crack down on shooting toward occupied homes

Ryan Radford, a homeowner in the Addison Creek, urged county commissioners on Dec. 4 to tighten the law on shooting toward occupied dwellings.

Sheriff's deputies may soon have a stronger law to back them up the next time homeowners complain that irresponsible shooters are firing rounds into their neighborhood.

After receiving numerous complaints over the past several months, Henderson County commissioners during their regular meeting on Monday night will take up an amendment to tighten the county's weapons ordinance.

"The public has complained to us," board Chair Bill Lapsley said Saturday. "We had some property owners up in the Fletcher area in the public comment time say there were some people that were shooting firearms on a vacant piece of property but some bullets were leaving the property. They showed a picture of bullet holes in the side of a couple of houses.”

Addressing the board on Nov. 20, James Martin spoke about "the irresponsible behavior of a neighbor recklessly discharging firearms in their neighborhood," according to minutes of the meeting, and showed a photo of bullet holes in a home.

On Dec. 2, Ryan Radford, a homeowner in the Addison Creek subdivision off Hoopers Creek Road, implored commissioners to crack down on shooters who were firing their guns from adjoining vacant land.

“I believe this issue was brought up to the commission at the last meeting, where we have an individual that's choosing to shoot guns very, very close to our house, approximately from the two sides of the courtroom away from our front door, which is causing a problem for our entire neighborhood,” Radford said. “Kids are not playing outside like they should be. There's a safety concern. A bullet actually struck our house, so we're very concerned. This evening, we're asking you guys to consider passing an ordinance similar to some other counties where there is a setback or a limitation to how close you can shoot a gun next to an occupied dwelling.

“We feel like it should be a common sense thing," he added. "It's a safety thing, and as you guys are considering it, we'd like to ask you to put yourself in our shoes, put yourself in our neighbor's shoes, and ask yourself if you would like for your family, for your loved ones, to be so close to someone discharging a firearm recklessly.”

 Sheriff’s deputies responding to the complaints encountered shooters who were not the owners of the land, and, according to Lapsley, said deputies could not stop them. Lapsley quoted them saying, “I have a right to shoot this gun on my property, you can’t stop me.”

“Basically what we did after the (Dec. 2) meeting, since Sheila Franklin had just been sworn and this activity was in her district, we asked her and the county attorney to meet and come up with a solution here.”

A meeting with Franklin, County Attorney Russ Burrell and Sheriff Lowell Griffin resulted in additional language intended to make landowners liable for the actions of shooters on their land.

County law currently makes it “unlawful to discharge a firearm in any manner which actually results in the projectile leaving the property on which it is being fired.” An addition to the paragraph would make it unlawful for “the owner or lessee of real property to knowingly allow another to discharge a firearm from the real property they own or lease in any manner which actually results in the projectile leaving the real property on which it is being fired.”

“We want to be careful here and make sure we’re not depriving somebody of their rights,” Lapsley said. “We felt like we could make a few minor changes to the ordinance which brought the property owner into the liability situation” for shots fired from their land toward neighboring homes. “If we get evidence that a projectile has left the property, we can go after the property owner. It’s our best solution at the moment.”