GOAL ALERT!

GOAL

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GOAL ALERT!

Massachusetts Gun Owners, the Town of Hopkinton will be considering an Article for their Annual Town Meeting that would prevent property owners with enough land from shooting on their own property and could virtually eliminate the ability to hunt within the Town limits. The proposal would extend the firearms discharge buffer distance for the Town to 1,000 feet from a building or dwelling in use and would increase the buffer distance to 800 feet from a public way. The current law in the Commonwealth limits the discharge of firearms from such structures and ways to 500 feet. If this ordinance passes it could spread to other communities. The Board of Selectmen is meeting on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021 to consider final warrant approval and the Annual Town Meeting is currently scheduled for Monday, May 3rd, 2021. You can find a draft of the Article (II) by following this link:

Draft General Bylaw Amendments - Select Board - February 11, 2021.pdf
 
Does this mean that current clubs are ok? How do they define "lawfully permitted"


The prohibition set forth in § 109-4 shall not apply to:
The use of such weapons on any lawfully permitted target, trap or skeet range.
 
Here's a perfect place to flip the argument on them with some woke logic. Doing this ensures that only rich people with lots of land can shoot on their own property. It's a socio-economic bar to a right everyone should have no matter their tax bracket. Should end the argument with the rhetorical: "What, are you against poor people?"
 
Not good for the 2 sportsman clubs in town...

Three clubs, but that's beside the point.

If you read the warrant, it exempts shooting ranges. The wording, however specifies target, trap, and skeet ranges only. This would mean sporting clays and five stand--does HSA still run that?--would be shut down.

The real damage comes to hunting. Essentially requiring you to carry a permission slip at all times and allowing the cops to stop and question you about it.
 
Here's a perfect place to flip the argument on them with some woke logic. Doing this ensures that only rich people with lots of land can shoot on their own property. It's a socio-economic bar to a right everyone should have no matter their tax bracket. Should end the argument with the rhetorical: "What, are you against poor people?"
They might say something like ...

No sir, we are doing this to support poor people. These people live closer together and have kids and pets that like to play in the yard. They have cookouts with friends and neighbors outside. We don't want a gun owner shooting one of those kids, pets or friends. Are you against people allowing their kids to play outside?

Anyway... fight this sh*t.

Today it doesn't involve the clubs. Tomorrow they will try to go after the clubs.
 
The issue I see is "Lawfully permitted" - AFAIK, there is no "law" that "permits" a range.
No, but there is a law that prevents a range from being bound to noise regulations enacted after the range was put into operation.

The instigator for this is not the select board, but a Hopkinton resident who started by trying to go after one of the gun clubs and backed off to target what territory he thought he could take now...then come back and fight for more later. Nothing about what this person was complaining about would have been stopped by this - he wants at least one gun club to go quiet. Next thing you know he'll be talking "compromise" of the form "give me some of what I want; I give you nothing; and we call it a compromise".

A key point is getting the town to appreciate 186 acres with no houses and hence negligible traffic and zero additional school children requiring union caretaking.
 
Agreed. Some people in Hopkinton may not be a fan of the Clubs that are there (despite the good works done by the clubs for the community), but they'd be even less of a fan of a bunch of apartments going up, with the infrastructure issues that would bring.

IIRC, Sudbury tried this a few years back - does anyone from a town that's tried this before, have a program for pushback?
 
The Board of Selectmen is meeting on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021
What came out of that? It wouldn't hurt to have the boards voting to do nothing to affect the clubs. If it is noise related, then there is law specifically protecting the clubs.
 
Here you go. Matt


View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KHlATWqwvtej07nSrjvYfIDLnSwNmL4w/view


2021 ANNUAL TOWN MEETING
6. PUBLIC FORUM - PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO GENERAL BYLAWS

The Select Board will hold a Public Forum to hear public comment on proposed
amendments to the General Bylaws, as follows:
1. Dog Licensing
2. Discharge of Firearms
3. Obstruction of Streets & Sidewalks
4. Street Opening Permits
5. Trench Safety Officer
Supporting Exhibits: Written Comment Received; Public Forum Notice; Draft Select
Board General Bylaw Amendments

● The Select Board voted to take no action on the Discharge of Firearms bylaw this year and not to
include it on the 2021 Annual Town Meeting warrant. (5-0)
 
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