If you’ve ever been around a shooting range or recreational shooting event, you know how loud they can be and how long the shooting can last. Imagine living next to one.
Town leaders in Newtown say concerns about noise are really what is fueling this conversation, which began long before the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December. And only one proposal addresses any sort of concerns that have come up after that tragedy.
Some of the ideas town officials looked at over the past 10 months were much more restrictive, including limits on the age of shooters and requiring more permits. But those are not included in the most recent proposal. Among the regulations on the compromise proposal would be to limit recreational shooting at local gun ranges to 8 a.m. to sunset and to limit shooting to one person at a time. The one proposal distantly related to the Sandy Hook shooting would restrict recreational shooting to at least a half mile from any school.
The legislative committee is sending its proposed revisions to the legal council, then the full council. From there, they would have to have a public hearing before a council vote.