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13 <br />on the television, and we don’t have a place where someone can go to get that <br />information. If someone is worried about firearms, they are worried about safety <br />first and noise second. If they areworried, then where do they go to get <br />information, or how do you get to them to provide good information? They are not <br />going to come to you to ask you. If they hear gunfire and they are afraid then they <br />are not going to ask the Sheriff’s Office to teach them about what is truly safe. <br />They are going to hold on to their perceptions of danger. <br />Dr. Arvik added that a person who perceives danger from hearing gunfire is going <br />to ask the government to prove that what the shooter is doing is safe. I’m asking <br />for something that will give the Sheriff some teeth to be able to go into a situation <br />that is obviously not safe in the assessment of a trained individual –we don’t even <br />have that training –and to do something. <br />How do we get informationout to the public that says, “Here is what we are doing <br />to make it as safe as it can be for you, as the public.” What I hear in my 40 years <br />of experience in gun instruction from people unfamiliar with firearms is, “I just <br />don’t know.” Why don’t they ask? Well, who can they ask? <br />Ms. Barksdale agreed that it is problematic to have shooting that is clearly risky <br />but no mechanisms for law enforcement to prevent harm, especiallybecause we <br />are becoming an increasingly dense county, she said. Mr. Webster said that safety <br />is key when dealing with firearms. You have to know where your rounds are <br />going. There isn’t a safety problem in Orange County, according to the data we <br />have received from the Sheriff’s Office. But we do need to avoid having someone <br />shot before we are able to react. Ms. Conti also agreed. <br />Mr. Kirkland referred to the petition that was presented to the Committee at the <br />close of the June Committee meeting. There were over 200 signatures, he said. I <br />know a lot of the people who signed, and I know a lot of people who would have <br />signed. Their starting assumption was that there should not be any ordinance at all. <br />I was of that mind too. However, if you have just one complaint then you have a <br />perceived problem. Safety is the biggest issue to me: making sure that a projectile <br />does not cross a property line. No responsible firearms users are going to let that <br />happen. However, we know that there are people out there who are not responsible. <br />How are we going to “police” that community? What can we get in place to help <br />take care of loose cannons,without undue expense and restrictions to responsible <br />firearms users?