Meeting Notes 062216 - Laserfiche WebLink

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6 dealing with a person shooting unsafely. He did not consider it unusual or problematic to hear gunshots on a Saturday afternoon in May –a neighbor of his has a range and that is OK --but in this instance the shots were coming from another directionthan the neighbor’s range, on private property just across Old NC 10, about 400 feet from Dr. Arvik’s back porch. He witnessed a man with a .22 caliber pistol shooting at a piece of 18-inch square plywood about 5/8-inch thick that was leaning against a tree on a crushed rock background. The man was shooting toward Dr. Arvik’s neighborhood where several pre-teens were riding bicycles. There was no way to predict where those bullets were going to gowith that set up. Dr. Arvik called 9-1-1 as he had been instructed to do earlier by the Sheriff’s Office. After waiting longer than seemed appropriatefor a deputy to arrive, he called 9-1-1 again and insisted that a deputy be dispatched immediately. A cruiser arrivedafter a few minutes, but instead of going to where the shooter was located the deputy went to Dr. Arvik’s home. The deputy rang the doorbell but Dr. Arvik did not hear it because he was out back watching the shooter, so the deputy left. Dr. Arvik then saw a deputy arriving at the shooter’s location. The deputy inspected the piece of board being used by the shooter, and left. The Sheriff’s Office received at least three calls in May about this one instance because Dr. Arvik then called 9-1-1 again. He insisted that anofficer return to the scene. He then saw the shooter with an AR-155.56 which, although it is a .22 caliber rifle, uses a high powered, military style, 4,000foot per second copper bullet. After talking with the deputy, the shooter agreed to put away the AR-15. The deputy then came to Dr. Arvik’s home to tell him that there was no violation with which the deputy could charge the shooter. I could suggest a change of behavior to the shooter, the deputy explained, but that is all because the shooter is on private property. Dr. Arvik learned from the deputy that the shooter was practicing for a target competition to be held the next day. The competitive shooter should have known about gun safety, Dr. Arvik said, but he wasn’t following it. If there is nothing the Sheriff’s Office can do about that, then surely we have a problem, he said. The longest ricochet from this shooter would have been 800 feet into our community.Every shot he fired was in the direction of our community. The problem was, first, that there was nothing law enforcement could do in an obviously unsafe situation because he was on private property. Second, because he is a competitive shooter, he was knowingly and