Meeting Notes 062216 - Laserfiche WebLink

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11 Mr. Hunnell encouraged Ms. Conti to talk further with Deputy Sykes to address her concerns about safety. You need to make sure those rounds are being discharged safely and if they are not then they can take appropriate action, he said. Dr. Arvik asked Deputy Sykes if the officers have a training program for learning how to determine whether a range is safe or not. Deputy Sykes said that there is no standardized trainingto enable deputies to make good, consistent determinations. Mr. Tilley said that most safe shooting is common sense. Deputies should be able to see what someone is doing and determine whether it’s questionable or not, he said, using common sense. Dr. Arvik said that the deputy who assessed the situation that he was involved with in May had determined that the shooter had a backstop and therefore was safe, even though the shooter was using an AR-15 to shoot into a 5/8-inch thick piece of plywood 18-inches square set up against a tree surrounded by gravel. Deputy Sykes said that he agreed that most safe shooting is common sense, and that the arrangement described by Dr. Arvik was not safe. In reply to a question from the facilitator, several Committee members said it was problematic that law enforcement training does not have all it needs –or at least guidelines --to determine what is safe or not in this context. Ms. Barksdale asked Dr. Arvik why he did not speak directly to the unsafe shooter that he had encountered last May. Dr. Arvik said that in general the suggestion to speak directly to another person is an excellent one, but that in his particular case the Sheriff’s Office had earlier come to the neighborhood in response to consistent break-ins and attempted break-ins, and helped to set up a Community Watch program. One of the first rules they teach you in Community Watch, he said, was not to get involved if you see something wrong; instead to call 9-1-1. Mr. Tilley said that he would agree with that advice for a break-in, but that an experienced hunter and target shooter who sees a person target shooting in an unsafe way might also first try to have a conversation. Communication can solve a lot of problems, he said. Ms. Barksdale said that she both agrees with that philosophy and finds it problematic. She explained that a person who loved to get intoxicated used to target shoot in her semi-rural area near Grady Brown school when her daughter was small several years ago. The only option we had was to pull the children indoors. As the population in Orange County becomes more dense, she said, the rights of the people who don’t want to pull their children indoorsmust also be considered. I would not have wanted to talk to that man, she said, while he was standing there intoxicated with a gun. We would call 9-1-1, but that would not end it.