York Board Appears Likely to Repeal Local Firearms Ordinance Tonight

By Amber Lester Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The York County Board of Supervisors will consider repealing an ordinance that prohibits discharging firearms in parts of the county at its Tuesday meeting.

The current ordinance restricts the discharge of firearms in heavily populated neighborhoods and subdivisions throughout the county, defining firearms as “Any handgun, shotgun or rifle which will, is designed to, or may be readily converted to expel single or multiple projectiles by the action of a combustible material.” More than 60 homeowners’ associations requested to be added to the list of areas where the firing of firearms is prohibited.

The Board of Supervisors has been considering changes in response to opposition to the ordinance from several citizens, including York-Poquoson Sheriff Danny Diggs. Diggs has shared widely spread e-mails with York citizens explaining his belief that the local ordinance is redundant. He says several state laws cover the majority of firearm offenses, including:

•Reckless handling of firearms; reckless handling while hunting
•Discharging firearms or missiles within or at a building or house.
•Willfully discharging firearms in public places.
•Discharging a firearm on public property within 1,000 feet of the property line of any school.
•Pointing, holding or brandishing a firearm or object that looks like one.
•Shooting in or across the road.
•Allowing access to firearms by children.

Diggs spoke before the board at its June 15 meeting, where the board unanimously approved changes to the ordinance while agreeing to consider its repeal at their next meeting. At that time, board member Tom Shepperd provided several hypothetical scenarios of firearm discharges in the county; for each scenario, Diggs responded with a state law that would cover the offense. In most cases, discharges would be considered “reckless handling of a firearm,” he said.

To make his point, Diggs told the board that in the last three and a half years, the Sheriff’s Office has received 731 calls claiming shots were fired and out of those calls, six arrests were made. For the other calls, the officers were either unable to determine if shots were fired or found that shots were fired in conjunction with another criminal offense.

At the same meeting, York County Attorney James Barnett pointed out that proving guilt under the state ordinances might be more difficult. “Under the discharge ordinance, you just have to prove there was a discharge,” he said. “There is more to prove under the criminal ordinance; you have to prove it was reckless. The elements of proof under criminal statutes tend to be more rigorous.”

He added that the state’s ordinance concerning the discharge of firearms near schools was less restrictive than the local one. The local ordinance prohibits the firing of weapons within 1,000 feet of school property; the state only regulates weapon use on public property near schools, not private property.

In his initial e-mail, forwarded to many residents by Realtor Greg Garrett, Diggs cited other reasons to repeal the law. He said any restriction on the use of a firearm is a potential infringement of the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and added that homeowners’ associations should not be given the power to infringe on the rights of residents.

Diggs said Prince George County repealed its own similar ordinance five years ago because there were multiple prohibited areas to patrol and the board was concerned over the infringement upon the rights of others. Diggs spoke with the county’s police chief, who reported the county has not had any problems since repealing their local ordinance.

Prince George's population is 38,393, a little more than half of York's, according to the Viginia State Police 2009 Crime in Virginia report. The crime rate, figured as incidents per 100,000, is 3,094. In York, with a population of 65,964, the crime rate was 4,346.

Prince George has 57 sworn officers, to York's 104.

Prince George's population resides in an area just under 266 square miles; York's in just less than 106 square miles, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The audience at the June 15 meeting was widely in agreement with Diggs. Greg Garrett told the board, “When you look at the safety issue, there has not been a single incident of a stray bullet in York County as far back as anybody can remember. The state law covers us; if somebody is going to be reckless with a gun, they’ll do it with or without the ordinance.”

Garrett is rallying citizens to join him at tonight’s meeting; in a recent e-mail forwarded to fellow conservatives, he wrote that the board would vote on a monumental issue that, if passed, “will be a milestone in turning the tide in York County back to its conservative roots.”

York County resident Pam Pouchot, a longtime advocate of gun control, voiced the only opposition to the possible repeal at the June 15 meeting. “Imagine a neighbor being a lousy shot and bullets coming through your wall,” she said. “This should not be about gun rights or politics…this is about safety.”

Because the board had only advertised a vote concerning changes to the ordinance on June 15, the members could not vote on whether to repeal the law until tonight’s meeting. Instead, they unanimously voted to adopt the amended ordinance, which eliminated restrictions on the discharge of air- and gas-powered guns, added several neighborhoods to the list of areas restricted to firearms discharges, eliminated a restriction on discharges within 300 feet of the listed areas, and added exemptions for managed deer hunts, defense of life or property and killing a dangerous animal. They did not adopt a provision to restrict discharges within 300 feet of a school property; the provision also would have required notice of an intended discharge within 1,000 feet of a school.

The board will meet at 6 p.m. in the board room at York Hall in Yorktown.