Florida's Unregulated Backyard Gun Ranges

[mominatrix]

this is horrible.
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FRI JAN 30, 2015 AT 06:08 PM PST
The Front Yard "Gun Range" Just Feet From My Neighbor's Kids' Bedroom Window UPDATE
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My son is 9. His best friend is 10 and that little boy has a 7 year old little sister. My son loves playing at their house. These are no computer game kids. They have a tree fort, rope ladders, tree swings and even a zip line. It is perfect place for the sort of innocent, creative, and active outdoor play I enjoyed as kid so many years ago. There's just one problem:

The outdoor "gun range" next door. That's right, the homeowner behind their property has decided his front yard, which is 8 feet from my friend's back yard property line and a few houses away from mine, is the perfect spot for a gun range. This is a residential neighborhood in the city limits of Saint Petersburg, Florida. The lots are as small at 1/4 acre. A gun range. With real guns. With real bullets.

Oh, but it gets so much better. Here are the words of our community association president in an email to the community this evening:

This is not a "back yard" gun range. It's an amateur and reckless set-up in which a man has to stand in his front yard and fire toward his house (and therefore at the house behind him), at a pile of sand held together with an old wooden palette.

The pile of sand is 8' from a neighbor's property where small children live and about 20' feet from the children's bedroom windows.

The owner of this house has arrests for DUI, cocaine and hydrocodone, and has had 2 domestic violence cases filed against him. His son has announced he is coming to the house with a "variety of guns," including an assault rifle.

Shocked yet? Oh, it gets better still. This is Florida.

That's right. Florida law allows people to build and maintain shooting ranges in their backyards. And unless an owner becomes negligent or reckless, there's nothing a neighbor can do.


For example:

* There's no restriction on the type of firearms or ammunition that can be used in a backyard shooting range.

* There's no restriction on the time of day or night your neighbors can use their gun range.

* And there's no restriction on gun ranges near a public school, day-care center or neighborhood playground. Talk about the need for duck-and-cover lessons.

We need your help DKos community. We need your help America. We need the help of sane people everywhere. Please follow over to see how you can.



2 of my kids and 2 of my neighbor's kids looking at the "gun range" from their backyard fence.



So Florida law is cool with this. The cops are not cool with this, but tell me there's nothing they can do. The city attorney says he can do nothing. The NRA threatens any town that dares try to pass an ordinance against this. And best yet, crazy governor Scott made certain in 2011 that any public official trying to pass a local ordinance or otherwise prevent this would be removed, fined $5,000 and barred from using public resources to defend him/herself.


But nothing says we can't flood to the Governor's email, the Mayor's email. Nothing says we cannot shame this city, this state, this nation gone insane.

Sometimes I'm so shocked by our irrationality I'm at a loss for words. Tonight is such a night. Tonight our little community, my son, my neighbors -- we need your help. Please. Call. Email. Call Rachel. Call Shaun King. Raise hell, because hell has visited upon our quiet little neighborhood, our city, our state, our nation.

FL Governor: www.flgov.com/...
Mayor's office: [e-mail] [phone]


Local media:
ABC Action News: News Tip line: 1-866-428-NEWS [e-mail]
NBC News Channel *: 1-800-348-WFLA [e-mail]




Sat Jan 31, 2015 at 4:10 AM PT: Interview question for Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, both Republican hopefuls for president in 2016:

"Do you agree with the NRA and your Republican colleagues that people should be allowed to have their own outdoor gun ranges in their front and back yards, even with children playing and sleeping just feet away?"



Sat Jan 31, 2015 at 4:12 AM PT: Interview question for Busk and Rubio, take 2:

"Rational people can debate the meaning of the "right to bear arms" until the come home, but please tell me where is the right to discharge those arms...in a residential neighborhood...at any time."



Sat Jan 31, 2015 at 4:14 AM PT: Interview question for Bush & Rubio, take 3:

"Why do Republican reject my property rights?"



Sat Jan 31, 2015 at 4:18 AM PT: Interview question for Bush and Rubio, take 4:

"Please explain to me how unregulated shooting of guns in residential neighborhoods is about freedom."



Sat Jan 31, 2015 at 4:20 AM PT: Interview question for Bush and Rubio, take 5:

"So then you think it perfectly acceptable and reasonable me setting up a gun range literally a few feet from your children's bedroom window? Or on the other side of the fence where your wife might be gardening?"



Sat Jan 31, 2015 at 4:23 AM PT: Question for Bush and Rubio, take 6:

"Help me understand Stand Your Ground, please. I have a neighbor shooting assault rifles a few feet from my backyard. I am in existential fear of my childrens' lives. Does Florida law mean I can kill him in self defense or that I simply have to live with it until his bullet passes through my kid, and then I can kill him?"



UPDATE - 1:21 P.M. EDT -- I've taken several actions that may yield results:

I had the luck to run into the former mayor Bill Foster. He did not believe this to be true; then he looked up the statute and was as shocked as the rest of us. I also spoke with a local guy who is very plugged in. He has called the head of SWAT in the city and they are going to keep an eye out. Also, my buddy knows Jeff Brandes, (you can help, his number is [phone] and his email link is www.flsenate.gov/...)  who is a prominent state senator. We are going to make certain he gets an earful until he enters a bill that at least puts some boundaries to this law, such as a 500' rule, time limits, etc. He's a GOP senator, but I've met him briefly before (he would not remember) and my friend has had frequent interaction and says he is at least sane.

I've also called my nephew who is a state prosecutor near DC and he's linking the DKos article to a community of state and federal prosecutors.

The local police chief has also been notified, as have a few prominent citizens. Basically, I'm just trying to stir up the pot and embarrass the state. Top down and bottom up through this outlet.



Sat Jan 31, 2015 at 11:24 AM PT: Sorry, tried to add more pictures, but I'm not able to for some reason.



Sat Jan 31, 2015 at 11:50 AM PT: I edited the locations after looking more closely at the relative position with my neighbor.


Sun Feb 01, 2015 at 5:42 PM PT: We've created a Twitter hashtag: #frontyardgunrange



ORIGINALLY POSTED TO PAJOLY ON FRI JAN 30, 2015 AT 06:08 PM PST.





www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/30/1361295/-The-Front-Yard-Gun-Range-Just-Feet-From-My-Neighbors-Kids-Bedroom-Window?detail=facebook#

[downtoearth]

I know I saw this on Colbert last year... Anyone else remember this?

thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/i8fthl/difference-makers---doug-varrieur

thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/i8fthl/difference-makers---doug-varrieur

[ttt]

Can someone remind me how Scott gets elected again?

[summer]

[penguingrrl]

There are no words. How on earth can this be legal? Doesn't common sense have to kick in somewhere along the line?

[Kattey]

Well this is terrifying.

[wawa]

I realized as soon as all the leaves fell off the trees that there is a house in my neighborhood with an archery target on a bunch of haybales against his fence. The side of the fence facing his neighbor's yard. (there is a park on the other side at a higher elevation - hence being able to see into the yard) I thought that was bad enough.

This? This is insanity.

[aprilsails]

I can see why he is pulling every resource he has available to get this law changed.

In my area there is now a gun ban within city limits, other than on agricultural zoned land. As a result, our 50 acre lot (which was not agricultural) was included in the ban. My Dad would occasionally set up target practice in the backyard when I was a kid, but we had no neighbours for a kilometre. He stopped and switched to archery practice only when the ban came into force.

A 1/4 acre lot in a suburb is no place for this kind of thing.