Meeting Notes 072016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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14 Mr. Tesoro saida certain percentage of people do not act safely: shooters, drivers, construction workers. No matter how many laws we put into place –OSHA, DOT, etc. --at the end of the day they are not going to act safely. Let’s say you pass a law that says you have to have a certain backstop. Some people will still go out and shoot without a backstop. Nothing’s changed by your passing that law. There’s already a law in place if their bullet hits somebody or something. Mr. Kirkland added that laws are written for law abiding people. Mr. Tesoro saidno matter how many laws you put into place there will always be people who act unsafely.Mr. Tilley saidthe safety issue is a perception problem. We don’t have any hard facts that there is a safety problem. But people perceive there is a safety problem because they are hearing gunfire. You hear a guy shooting ten times, you might wonder if he is shooting correctly. Based on the facts, the answer is, “probably.” Hunters are sighting their rifles safely. People with concealed carry permits have taken the course and understand safety. But there isa perception of a safety issue, he said. Dr. Arvik said that there are more armed people today than ever in the history of the United States. There are more people getting carry permits and buying guns, particularly women, because they are scared. They hear guns going off and they think a riot is breaking out. I’m talking about preventive things here. I’m trying to give the Sheriff’s Office the ability to go and check on where that shooting is and whether is it OK. If they do not have the authority then they can’t make it OK. Sooner or later, somebody is going to get shot, he said. The danger from people who don’t get trained is higher than ever before. We have rules for after the fact, but we don’t have rules for before the fact. Anyone who wants a gun can have one, that’s in the Constitution. I’m absolutely in agreement with that. How they handle that gun is what gun safety training is for. Can they acquire a gun without gun safety training? Sure they can. The Sheriff’s Office can’t do anything about a clearly unsafe situation before the damage occurs. Let’s give them the tools to do something about it. Guns are noisy, but the higher priority is the perception that they are dangerous. The noise regulations should be independent of the cause of the noise, like someone running a lawnmower. But you can’t regulate the noise of a guy with a gun shooting in close proximity to a house? What is wrong with that picture? What do you want the people in our community to see from us, he asked. A statement that we don’t think safety is a big issue? That we are more worried about noise? No, the name of this Committee is the Firearms Safety Committee. I don’t want to write a noise ordinance, I want to write a firearms safety ordinance.