Agenda - 11-16-1993 - VII-B - Laserfiche WebLink

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4 Orange County Board of Commissioners Page 3 November il, 1993 land and buildings owned, leased or operated by Orange County and used for parks and related recreational purposes. This prohibition excepts law enforcement officers and persons engaged in or on the way to or from a recreation department or other County-sponsored activity in which firearms are legitimately used. This prohibition is contained in AN ORDINANCE REGULATING PARKS AND RECREATION IN ORANGE COUNTY. 2 . Orange County also prohibits commercial use of residentially zoned property in most cases . Therefore, a person in the business of selling firearms cannot operate that business from residentially zoned property unless the sale is clearly an incidental part of a legitimate and permitted home occupation. In his March 26, 1990 memorandum, Mr. Karpinos concludes that the Town of Chapel Hill cannot regulate the sale of guns under a provision of its Charter written broad enough, arguably, to permit it to do so. He bases this conclusion on the fact that the Town Charter is a local act of the North Carolina General Assembly and the fact that Article II, Section 24 of the North Carolina Constitution prohibits local acts regarding "trade. " From this analysis, Mr. Karpinos concludes that the Town lacks authority to ban the sale of guns . I do not disagree with Mr. Karpinos ' analysis . However, it is my opinion that the conclusion he reaches extends beyond the analysis . While a general ban on the sale of guns may be beyond Orange County's power,2 a prohibition against the commercial use of residential property which prohibition is part of the County's comprehensive zoning regulations and which prohibition also includes the business of selling guns, is not. 3 . Orange County's ORDINANCE REGULATING HUNTING AND FISHING ON PRIVATE LANDS OR WATERS WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION OF OWNER prohibits hunting, including hunting with firearms, on posted private lands or waters of another without the written permission of the owner or lessee of the land or water.3 2A total ban on the sale of guns within the unincorporated areas of Orange County risks a Constitutional confrontation. That is, in the absence of a legitimate way to obtain "arms" (buying and selling them) , the right to "bear" them is arguably "infringed. " 3There are comparable state laws in Article 21A of Chapter 113 of the North Carolina General Statutes . This letter does not attempt to analyze hunting laws and regulations . As will be discussed later, they impact to a considerable degree the County's ability to regulate guns.