Knox County Residents, This Is Your Neighbor

[runco]

I don't have any skin in this, but Knox county residents need to be aware of this:

 

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/mom-wants-to-limit-firearm-discharge-in-knox-co/7392809

 

 

 

 

Mom wants to limit firearm discharges in Knox Co.

One Knox County woman wants the county to limit the discharge of weapons. She says weapons firings make her feel unsafe. Dec. 22, 2015

Becca Habegger 7:40 PM. EST December 22, 2015

 

 

Knox County mom Lisa Blair-Rogers wants the county to limit firearms discharges in the county.

 

 

CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN

 

(NORTH KNOX COUNTY) One Knox County woman is asking commissioners to limit the shooting of firearms in residential areas.

Lisa Blair-Rogers lives in Knox County, just north of Fountain City. Her neighborhood is not in a particularly remote area, and houses are spaced about as far apart as they might be in some neighborhoods located within city limits.

During the public forum section of Monday's Knox County Commission meeting, Blair-Rogers told commissioners one of her nearby neighbors routinely fires his gun in his yard.

 

Lisa Blair-Rogers addresses Knox County commissioners at Monday night's meeting

 

 

 

 

"I don't feel safe walking outside my home, not knowing when it's going to happen - what time of day, what time of night...Recently, it's happened after dark, and that's disconcerting," she told WBIR 10News in an interview Tuesday.

"The second that you miss your target and it goes into my backyard and hits my child or my dog, that's where the problem is," she explained.

Knox County is more densely populated than it once was, and Blair-Rogers thinks the county needs some kind of regulation on firing a gun.

In Knoxville, for example, it's illegal to discharge a firearm in city limits.

"You would think, just in my logical mind, if the city could have an ordinance that said, 'We won't let you shoot your gun at all,' that the county could at least look at some type of ordinance," Blair-Rogers said. "I think probably distance from each other's front doors might be a good place to start."

However, county law director Bud Armstrong said, state law limits gun regulation to public parks, and "beyond that, the county has no power over firearms, at all, from a regulatory standpoint...(It) can't keep you from shooting a gun on your own property in a safe and secure manner."

It's different, he said, if someone is violating a noise ordinance or acting recklessly, in the latter of which criminal charges could be pressed.

Possibly conflicting information is found in a 2013 opinion from the Tennessee Attorney General's office, regarding local government's ability to prohibit or limit the discharge of firearms.

In it, the AG's office said, a local government entity may "prohibit by ordinance the discharge of firearms within its jurisdiction...so long as the local ordinance does not conflict with Tennessee statutes or regulations that regulate the discharge of firearms, including proclamations, rules, and regulations of the (Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency) related to permitted hunting in areas under its jurisdiction."

State statute, it went on to find, does not expressly reserve authority to regulate firearm discharge. As such, the AG's office said, state law leaves the regulation of firearm discharge up to local governments, so long as those regulations don't "conflict with any other State statute or regulation."

For example, the opinion says, "a municipal ordinance prohibiting firearms discharges would not be enforceable against an individual who has been lawfully permitted to engage in hunting within the city limits by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency."

Read that full opinion HERE.

Blair-Rogers said she still questions whether the county can't regulate the discharge of firearms.

With two children, Blair-Rogers said, nearby gunfire is disconcerting and she'd like to see some kind of restriction.

"I know we have to stay within state laws, but, you know, past that, I don't see why we couldn't consider something," she said.

She added the county will only get more densely populated, especially with the upcoming creation of two new middle schools.

Blair-Rogers and her county commissioner, Amy Broyles, plan on meeting to discuss possible options.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2015 by runco

[runco]

Oops, I swear I searched for another thread.  See that another was started.  Sorry!

[ironsniper1]

Atleast you posted the full text here


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