Yarmouth: Ban homemade gun ranges

Yarmouth: Ban homemade gun ranges

MY VIEW

Yarmouth: Ban homemade gun ranges

By Bryan Day
The winter of our discontent is slowly being replaced by the sights and sounds of spring: lush green grass topped with a fresh coat of morning dew, yards and roadways graced with colorful daffodils, the sweet sounds of birds chirping … and the startling roar of gunfire.

For residents of my South Yarmouth neighborhood, the discharge of firearms at an unregulated homemade gun range has become a menacing springtime ritual. Media reports indicate that the same dangerous ritual is taking place in Massachusetts towns like Edgartown and Northboro.
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Incredibly, one state statute allows a landowner to operate a homemade range anywhere on his or her property without the need to obtain neighbor consent. In other words, your next-door neighbor has the legal right to set up and use a homemade range located 1 inch from your property line.
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Brian, move back to wherever you came from.
Also, 500 feet from any building or paved road.

A citizens petition to limit firearms use, drafted by Bryan Day in reaction to target shooting in a large bog off Knob Hill Road, was soundly defeated. The proposal would have prohibited the discharge of firearms within town limits, except when it involved lawful defense of life or property, gun use by police in the line of duty, shots fired as part of a military exercise or funeral, firing at a shooting gallery licensed by the town, target shooting at Greenough Boy Scout Reservation in Yarmouth Port, shooting blank ammunition at historic events and firing while lawfully hunting wildlife.

Day tried to amend the article at town meeting by adding the Bass River Rod and Gun Club – whose members turned out in force – to the list of exceptions.

The raucous crowd accused Day of being a newcomer who was trying to interfere with a practice that had been ongoing at Craig Williams’ bog for the last 40 years.

“Don’t change our laws – change your address,” one speaker told Day.

Robert Brothers, who said he lived near the bog, told voters that target practice there wasn’t endangering anyone. “I’m tired of people moving to Yarmouth from somewhere else and telling us how to live our lives,” he said.
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