Before you jump all over him, he’s a long time gun owner & hunter. He’s also an upper end senior citizen.

I was over talking the other day, he asked if I heard what sounded like full auto gunfire 10 days prior? I would guess 2+ miles away. He told me he called the Sheriff over it, ‘full auto guns are illegal’?

I told him full auto guns are NOT illegal, just require additional checks & paperwork to own. I also said, very few would shoot full auto in the area unless totally legal. This is SE WI, semi-rural.

That’s about the gist of it, he may hear back if anyone looks into it. I was surprised he would make such a call. I guess if one owns, you have to be ready(and legal) for everything.

My sportsmans club allows full auto (but not .50 BMG nor 5.7 pistols). The defined best practice is to call LEO prior to hitting the range to give them a heads up for the inevitable phone calls (we're bordered on two sides by very high end "estates"...the club has been there since the early 1930s, so it isn't like they didn't know before buying in but that doesn't stop the nuiscance calls).

EDIT to clarify: heads up for full auto, not general range practice.

I don’t know why we should be surprised by something like that.

Many gun owners are among the most sanctimonious when it comes to other people using firearms. We see that here all the time in discussions about everything from gun-handling practices at the local gun shop to what someone does while involved in a fight for his life. And when it comes to NFA items, the ignorance still runs swift and deep among many despite how things have changed for the rest of us in recent years. Members here have opined that pistol arm “braces” are patently illegal—or should be—despite what the ATF has ruled, and would they call law enforcement if they saw one being used in a jurisdiction where they were banned locally? And don’t forget the Zumbo example: a professional gun writer pundit who believed that certain rifles had no legitimate use for hunting, and he was/is far from alone.

As I’ve said before, if every gun owner voted like a gun owner just once in a major election, we wouldn’t have to worry about our gun rights for at least a generation. Alas, however ….

quote:

Originally posted by jrhillma:
My sportsmans club allows full auto (but not .50 BMG nor 5.7 pistols). The defined best practice is to call LEO prior to hitting the range to give them a heads up for the inevitable phone calls (we're bordered on two sides by very high end "estates"...the club has been there since the early 1930s, so it isn't like they didn't know before buying in but that doesn't stop the nuiscance calls).

EDIT to clarify: heads up for full auto, not general range practice.

NOPE! Not going to notify LE just because some 'Karens' live nearby in the 'very high end' neighborhood....

quote:

Originally posted by jrhillma:
My sportsmans club allows full auto (but not .50 BMG nor 5.7 pistols). The defined best practice is to call LEO prior to hitting the range to give them a heads up for the inevitable phone calls (we're bordered on two sides by very high end "estates"...the club has been there since the early 1930s, so it isn't like they didn't know before buying in but that doesn't stop the nuiscance calls).

EDIT to clarify: heads up for full auto, not general range practice.

Why would there be any reason whatsoever to call LE? The club has been there before the houses, right? Or at the least, people living in these "high end estates" moved in well after the club was built. And certain club members are going to call LE because they want to shoot legal full auto firearms? I would tell the neighbors to suck it, they bought into the situation, it's not up to club shooters to placate their little feelings.

These are the same idiots who move near an airport and start complaining about air craft noise.

Instead of morning birdsong, we get morning small-arms fire including bursts, from the Carlos Hathcock Firing Range at Miramar MCAS just south of us. Brightens up the day.

My mom (and brother) live near a firing range called Camp Bullis. The army often shoots .50 BMG and even artillery there. I wonder if they call the police?

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Instead of morning birdsong, we get morning small-arms fire including bursts, from the Carlos Hathcock Firing Range at Miramar MCAS just south of us. Brightens up the day.

LOL - I know that place, I'm just north of the 56.

Good thing they don't live here in Epping.

Few days ago Jerry and Lena Miculek were firing Sig's new MG 338. No one called.

I am not an attorney, but my cousin who was a law professor for years is, and he explained the thing about neighbors’ complaints very emphatically when I expressed the idea that newcomers should have no basis for bitching about pre-existing conditions. As he put it, if something is inappropriate for the location, then it doesn’t matter who was there first. If I can’t keep my nuisance—smoke, smell, noise, free-ranging goats, etc.—on my property so that it doesn’t inconvenience others, they will generally have standing under the law to object to that nuisance and to request a court to order me to stop making it.

If my neighbor blares out mariachi music every morning at 0200 and I call the police to complain, it won’t be justification for him to point out that he’s always done that, and he’s lived there longer than I have. In fact, I’ve never heard of anyone’s ever successfully offering an I was here first defense to a noise complaint.

We may not like it, and there are sometimes statutory or perhaps common law exceptions to that principle, but many activities and businesses have had to cease their operations after someone moved next door and objected.

And I recall being told years ago that the SIG Academy agreed to delay its activities on Sundays to appease the neighbors.

had several calls over the years when we were able to shoot behind the shop, or at my brother's place,

once was a call on a weekday afternoon about shots fired,

it got cleared quickly, since the responding officer was there and it was his gun we were shooting,


had another call at the Brother's place when we were shooting,

showed the guy the paperwork (Didn't have to but thought it would be the right thing to do) and the target area, and offered to let him shot a mag or 2, thru whatever he wanted,


he declined, and let us be

I didn’t realize it is such a thing with full-auto fire. Seems like it would be the same with a ‘silencer’, ‘those things are illegal, aren’t they’? Some would ask.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
I am not an attorney, but my cousin who was a law professor for years is, and he explained the thing about neighbors’ complaints very emphatically when I expressed the idea that newcomers should have no basis for bitching about pre-existing conditions. As he put it, if something is inappropriate for the location, then it doesn’t matter who was there first. If I can’t keep my nuisance—smoke, smell, noise, free-ranging goats, etc.—on my property so that it doesn’t inconvenience others, they will generally have standing under the law to object to that nuisance and to request a court to order me to stop making it.

If my neighbor blares out mariachi music every morning at 0200 and I call the police to complain, it won’t be justification for him to point out that he’s always done that, and he’s lived there longer than I have. In fact, I’ve never heard of anyone’s ever successfully offering an I was here first defense to a noise complaint.

We may not like it, and there are sometimes statutory or perhaps common law exceptions to that principle, but many activities and businesses have had to cease their operations after someone moved next door and objected.

And I recall being told years ago that the SIG Academy agreed to delay its activities on Sundays to appease the neighbors.

the club I belong to does that

open late on Sunday, to be nice to the church across the road,

we will close for special occasions too, weddings and such, if notified in advance

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
I don’t know why we should be surprised by something like that........And don’t forget the Zumbo example...

Yep, one only needs to remember Zumbo, and the surprise will go away.

Dozen years back I had the MT FBI agents doing their qualification in my back field. Same place we did the Highway Patrol Quals 4 times a year. One can work out of the car, targets can be pistol or rifle ranges, huge hill/mtn for a bacstop, etc.

They usually brought by the 10mm MP-5's or even better one of the old Thompsons for ME to play with.

Same deal a know it all neighbor stops by to INFORM me we can't have full autos or fire them.

My marked MHP car in the drive, but my interpretation of the law not good enough.

He starts to get borderline abusive, the asshole is known to me , as a hot head as well as a Liberal Democrat. As well as a hater of LE and Govt in general. (Far more to the story)

He starts with the "I'll call the county sherif" stuff. I suggest he should call the FBI.

"I think I will" He says.

So I call Agent Wilson over, the Head agent for the State. Wilson assured him it was all legal and proper.

Few weeks later I get a call from one of the State ATF Agents. The complainer dimed ME out to the ATF, that we were shooting full autos on my property. Of course failed to tell the rest of the story.

I have been approached a few times and told that "silencers" were illegal, while shooting suppressed rifle at the Gt Falls rifle range.

My complainer kicked off several years back, the neighborhood has been better after he left.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
I am not an attorney, but my cousin who was a law professor for years is, and he explained the thing about neighbors’ complaints very emphatically when I expressed the idea that newcomers should have no basis for bitching about pre-existing conditions. As he put it, if something is inappropriate for the location, then it doesn’t matter who was there first. If I can’t keep my nuisance—smoke, smell, noise, free-ranging goats, etc.—on my property so that it doesn’t inconvenience others, they will generally have standing under the law to object to that nuisance and to request a court to order me to stop making it.

If my neighbor blares out mariachi music every morning at 0200 and I call the police to complain, it won’t be justification for him to point out that he’s always done that, and he’s lived there longer than I have. In fact, I’ve never heard of anyone’s ever successfully offering an I was here first defense to a noise complaint.

We may not like it, and there are sometimes statutory or perhaps common law exceptions to that principle, but many activities and businesses have had to cease their operations after someone moved next door and objected.

And I recall being told years ago that the SIG Academy agreed to delay its activities on Sundays to appease the neighbors.

Not in every case.

Some jurisdictions allow the defense of "coming to the nuisance."

If you build your new housing tract next to a regional airport that has been in operating since 1951, you cannot shut down airport operations just because the airport keeps you awake at 10AM in the morning.

I am a member of two outdoor ranges that are "conservation clubs". One does not allow centerfire rifle because the high berm at the back faces the west side of 465. But you can shoot handguns, handgun caliber carbines, shotgun slugs, and muzzleloaders. The idea being that they don't want someone to lob a rifle round over the berm. Some people living in houses that were built after the range complain, usually about skeet night. One person threw and live round on their property and claimed in landed there from the range, case and all...

The other range allows centerfire rifle, but only slow fire with 3 seconds between shots is allowed, because the people that built houses on the other side of the lake complain. I fail to see how speed of fire makes any difference. I think if I didn't like the noise I would prefer that it is done with more quickly because the ammo is used up.

I called 911 about automatic rifle fire once, in Phoenix

Unfortunately, it was on July 4th,
and I was #56 on the waiting list

He was in the back of a lifted Toyota 4x4 with an AK,
He was shooting at the mountain that was adjacent to the apts.

It was dark when I went to work in the a.m. ,
Didn't see any casings in the street.

No, I did not go out to get a plate

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
I don’t know why we should be surprised by something like that.

Many gun owners are among the most sanctimonious when it comes to other people using firearms. We see that here all the time in discussions about everything from gun-handling practices at the local gun shop to what someone does while involved in a fight for his life. And when it comes to NFA items, the ignorance still runs swift and deep among many despite how things have changed for the rest of us in recent years. Members here have opined that pistol arm “braces” are patently illegal—or should be—despite what the ATF has ruled, and would they call law enforcement if they saw one being used in a jurisdiction where they were banned locally? And don’t forget the Zumbo example: a professional gun writer pundit who believed that certain rifles had no legitimate use for hunting, and he was/is far from alone.

As I’ve said before, if every gun owner voted like a gun owner just once in a major election, we wouldn’t have to worry about our gun rights for at least a generation. Alas, however ….

This.

There are tons of LEO that don't know the letter of the NFA laws (cause they are so damn complicated)... There are EVEN more regular joe citizens that don't know shit about regular firearms laws.

Every time the add a block of training to the academy that has to be told, they have to eliminate a block of training we used to have... Do the math.

If you are obeying the law you have nothing to worry about in the long run.

Get to know your local officers. We'd probably like to see your cool toys too!

I know I would.