Lewisville’s (NC) public-safety committee has proposed expanding the distance from a building within which you can fire a gun from 300 feet to 500 feet.  Earlier in the year the committee had recommended expanding the distance to 1,000 feet, but the town council changed the distance to 500 and then sent the proposal back to the committee after receiving complaints from some citizens.  The committee held two public meetings and then settled on 500 feet as a good compromise.

I don’t know much about guns but 500 feet doesn’t seem like enough to me, especially when you consider that people can actually shoot closer to buildings if they have the owner’s permission.  That means that if you want to shoot off some rounds on a farm or in an open field you can do so even within 100 feet of a building if you have the owner’s permission.  That also means farmers who want to keep shooting pests and varmints on their own land can do so at will.  On the other hand 500 feet doesn’t seem like much of a buffer if you’ve got someone with bad aim and a hunting rifle popping off shots down the street from the backyard where your kids are playing.

Part of me thinks I might be getting a little too touchy here, and I do understand where the long-time residents who are used to hunting and shooting on their family farms are coming from (they don’t like this proposal), but on the other hand the town is only going to get more populated and I think we need to anticipate that eventuality with some common-sense regulations. Still, whichever way the town council votes on this issue won’t change the fact that this is a great place to live.