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Federation Position on Town of Williston Firearms Discharge Ordinance and Proposed Changes Thereto As it exists now, the Town of Williston Firearm Ordinance forbids firearms discharge in public parks. The town has been interpreting all public lands as parks. The Conservation Committee has raised the issue of whether there are areas of public land that could be safely hunted. This was the start of the review of the present firearm discharge ordinance which has led to the proposed amendment. The Williston Selectboard's ordinance, incorporating the proposed amended language is available at: Click here: http://town.williston.vt.us/ordin/firearm%20amend.pdf There are two areas of concern to the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs: The language of the Williston Firearm Discharge Ordinance should be consistent with state law. The current Williston Discharge Ordinance has several conflicts with existing state law. The most effective way to achieve hunter compliance is when there are consistent standards throughout the state. Otherwise, a hunter has to know of the specific ordinance(s) for each town and know what town they are in (not as easy as one might think on back roads). Also, the present language of the proposed amendment does not appear to comply with the range criteria for municipal discharge-regulating power as set forth in 24 VSA Section 2291(8) and 10 VSA Section 5227, as amended by H.447, Act 173. Williston only wants to exempt permitted ranges from their amended ordinance and not use the "existing sport shooting range" standard of the statute. Click here: The Vermont Statutes Online Title 24 Section 2291(8) Click here: The Vermont Statutes Online Title 10 Section 5227 Vermont League of Cities & Towns Synopsis of H.447, Act 173 amendments to said statues is reproduced below and at: Click here: http://www.vlct.org/d/advocacy/Wrap_up_2006.pdf The language of the Williston ordinance would have a mandatory 500-foot no-shooting zone around buildings on private land. This makes mandatory what state law has as a voluntarily-created safety zone, as per 10 VSA Section 4710. To be exempt from the mandatory 500 foot no-shooting zone restriction a person would be required to have on their person the written permission of the landowner/tenant to shoot within this 500-foot zone. State law only requires advance permission. Also, said state law is limited to "occupied" structures whereas Williston's ordinance would ban discharge "whether "occupied or unoccupied" If a landowner wants a safety zone, he can create one. This is as much a property-owner issue as it is a firearm-discharge issue. Click here: The Vermont Statutes Online Title 10 Section 4710 Even if there are no known existing sport shooting ranges in Williston, the ordinance should be consistent with state law with regard to: definition of exempt range safety zone around residences/buildings The Town of Williston Discharge Ordinance should offer the opportunity to maximize safe hunting on public land. Hunting and fishing contributes 71 million dollars to Vermont's economy. Hunting and fishing licenses make up 38 percent of the Fish and Wildlife Department’s budget; federal excise taxes on the sale of guns, ammunition and other hunting and fishing gear comprise another 36 percent of the budget. The Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs holds that these two issues are reasonable concerns that can be readily accomdated. Vermont League of Cities & Towns Synopsis of H.447, Act 173 Shooting Ranges (H.447, Act 173) VLCT Staff Contact: Karen Horn H.447 establishes that only an owner of a property that abuts a shooting range may bring a nuisance action for civil damages against the range if the range is out of compliance with any noise use condition of any issued municipal or state land use permit. A shooting range now has a rebuttable presumption that it is not a nuisance if it was established prior to the acquisition of the property by the abutting property owner, and the frequency of the shooting or other alleged nuisance activity has not significantly increased since the abutting property owner acquired his or her property. That presumption may only be overcome by a showing that the activity has a noxious and significant interference with the use and enjoyment of the abutting property. H.447 now requires that, prior to nighttime use of a shooting range by law enforcement agencies for training, the range shall notify abutting property owners if they’ve requested notice. A range shall also try to resolve issues through mediation if an abutting property owner requests it. Parties may thereafter submit the dispute to binding arbitration. The shooting range and property owner will share the cost of arbitration and mediation. The bill also severely limits municipal authority by amending Section 8 of the enumerated powers of a municipality. A municipality may regulate the use or discharge of but not possession of firearms within the municipality or portions thereof, “provided that an ordinance adopted under this subdivision shall be consistent with section 2295 of this title and shall not prohibit, reduce or limit discharge at any existing sport shooting range, as that term is defined in section 5227 of Title 10.” The relevant section of Title 10 defines a sport shooting range as “an area designed and operated for the use of archery, rifles, shotguns, pistols, skeet, trap, black powder, or any other similar sport shooting.” H.447 took effect upon passage, May 5, 2006. (Amends 10 V.S.A. § 5227 and 24 V.S.A. § 2291; adds 10 V.S.A. § 5227a.)