Meeting Notes 062216 - Laserfiche WebLink

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15 over no firearms issue, he said. No regulatory authority over the ownership, manufacture, or sale of firearms or ammunition. It has limited authority over possession, public display and discharge of firearms. Currently, the County regulates possession; if not to the maximum extent allowed by the State then it is very close. That relates primarily to prohibiting firearms on Countyproperty. We cannot regulate firearms on private property. Although counties may regulate the public display of firearms on roads, sidewalks, alleys and other public property, the County does not have such regulations. I would not recommend the Board do so, he said, because this is addressed adequately by State law. The primary area that the County may regulate firearms is through discharge. Most counties that do this do so either through noise or distance limitations. For example, Cabarrus County regulates through distance. Orange County has a noise ordinance; firearms discharge is not covered by that ordinance. The County cannot regulate firearms discharge for lawful hunting or in the defense of person or property. Commissioner Jacobs asked whether the County has authority to enforce against someone using a firearm while intoxicated on their own property.Mr. Roberts said the County regulates hunting while intoxicatedand, since the statute says that a county may regulate discharge “at any time or place,” he would consider a county regulation against someone using a firearm while intoxicated to be lawful, at least until a court strikes it down, perhaps if at all on Constitutional grounds. Commissioner Jacobs recalled that in order for Orange County to adopt a regulation against intoxicated hunting, based on a Caswell County ordinance, the County needed special authority from the General Assembly. Mr. Roberts deferred to the Sheriff’s Office in reply to a question from Commissioner Jacobs regarding how a prohibition against intoxicated shooting would be enforced; we could work with the Sheriff’s Office on that to develop standards for implementation, he said. In reply to a question from Mr. Tesoro,Deputy Sykesexplained that an intoxicated shooter on private property is not in and of itself enough for the Sheriff’s Office to act upon; there has to be a criminal act. Mr. Roberts added that if the County did pass an ordinance to prohibit intoxicated shooting then it would a Class-3 misdemeanor, the lowest level of misdemeanor. Commissioner Jacobs recognized Michael Harvey,Current Planning Supervisor, who is responsible for enforcing the County’s zoning ordinance, sitting with the observers. Commissioner Jacobs said that a lot of the problems regarding firearms brought to the Board of Commissioners by the public haveto do with noise, in addition to safety. The Commissioners have talked about whether to change the County’s noise ordinance, he said, but we have not grappled with it very much so