State/local law on discharging a firearm?

[Steve in PA]

I have found the PSP to be of little help in situations where they were called. I had an incident several months ago where some punks drove down our street and sprayed the houses with bbgun fire from a car, then took off. I was working in my garage at the time and a bb came in and bounced around before coming to rest on the floor. I ran out, got a description of ther car and then called the troopers(our town is also under PSP patrol). A trooper was sent out, and took my story. A neighbor heard the call on her scanner and came to my house while the officer was there, and told him that her mother was at the local supermarket and saw a car that fit the description from the police call and called her daughter who then came to our house. The trooper left and I never heard from him again. His lackluster reactions simply told me that to them this is a non-issue, not worthy of their time. As a taxpayer, I found this action from a public servant to be less than satisfactory.

My next door neighbor had her porch light shot out twice by probably these same kids. She called the PSP and they basically told her without proof there was not much they could do. Maybe so, but even a patrol down our street once in a blue moon would be better than nothing. I have yet to see them down our street since, and at this point have lost all confidence in the PSP.

So.....the neighbor heard te call on the scanner........but her mother was at the store...........who supposedly saw a car matching the description????

How did the mother know about the call if she was at the store? Was she walking around with a scanner in her ear???

Unless someone gets a license plate it is very, very......very hard to locate a "small, dark colored no name vehicle"..............

You do realize that PSP is not like your local PD. Their coverage area is huge. Want better police coverage, convince your municipality to get their own police. Then you can see cars in your area more often.

[Ozone]

Collegeville Ordinance prohibits firing guns in Borough.

http://keystatepub.com/keystate-pdf/...0Nuisances.pdf

These ordinances have no bearing on where Bort lives. He has a Collegeville address, but doesn't live in the Boro itself, if he has PSP for Police coverage. Collegeville does have it's own Police force.

I grew up in Skippack, but with a Collegeville address.

Politics are stopping Collegeville from expanding their Police force to cover Trappe boro and Perkiomen township. To me it's a no-brainer, cause Trappe is bigger then Collegeville, and they could use the protection from Collegeville.

[bort]

These ordinances have no bearing on where Bort lives. He has a Collegeville address, but doesn't live in the Boro itself, if he has PSP for Police coverage. Collegeville does have it's own Police force.

I grew up in Skippack, but with a Collegeville address.


Politics are stopping Collegeville from expanding their Police force to cover Trappe boro and Perkiomen township. To me it's a no-brainer, cause Trappe is bigger then Collegeville, and they could use the protection from Collegeville.

I would like to see'em merge with UPPD and cover the entire area as a regional. As mentioned though, Politics is politics.

[unclejumbo]

Could you explain a little further? Assuming a proper backstop and absence of persons in the 'danger zone', how is round count or caliber relevant?

I am not assuming a proper backstop from what I am reading in the original post.

If somebody went out and fired a couple of rounds out of a 9mm into the ground to ring in the new year it would not be as dangerous as someone firing a mag full of 7.62x39 from their AK in the air.

A 50 BMG steel core will punch through a really big tree, a .22 doesn't take too much tree to stop it.

Totality of the circumstances.

[unclejumbo]

I have found the PSP to be of little help in situations where they were called. I had an incident several months ago where some punks drove down our street and sprayed the houses with bbgun fire from a car, then took off. I was working in my garage at the time and a bb came in and bounced around before coming to rest on the floor. I ran out, got a description of ther car and then called the troopers(our town is also under PSP patrol). A trooper was sent out, and took my story. A neighbor heard the call on her scanner and came to my house while the officer was there, and told him that her mother was at the local supermarket and saw a car that fit the description from the police call and called her daughter who then came to our house. The trooper left and I never heard from him again. His lackluster reactions simply told me that to them this is a non-issue, not worthy of their time. As a taxpayer, I found this action from a public servant to be less than satisfactory.

My next door neighbor had her porch light shot out twice by probably these same kids. She called the PSP and they basically told her without proof there was not much they could do. Maybe so, but even a patrol down our street once in a blue moon would be better than nothing. I have yet to see them down our street since, and at this point have lost all confidence in the PSP.

I am sorry your experiences with the PSP have left a bad taste in your mouth. I can tell you from experience, 16+ years, that we do the best we can.

We often know who did something but without proof to take to court there isn't much we can do. As someone else said, "a small dark 4 door car" is not much to work with. Combine that with a single patrol car covering multiple townships and you can see where we don't always get the bad guy.

As far as a patrol down your street, with one car covering your township and probably another three or four you can understand why you only see us once in a blue moon. You have to be looking outside that one or two times a day we may actually drive down your road. Most PSP stations are busy to the point we simply respond from one incident to the next. There is not a lot time to do proactive patrol.

[ErSwnn]

One recourse in a situation like this is to file for a civil case. I had to do that in a situation here because of some young adults setting off some VERY powerful homemade explosives in their backyard at 9:30PM. My house shook from these things. The police didn't do anything besides tell them not to do it again. Turns out one of the kids renting the house had a father who was very politically connected. We won, the guys settled down and expressed their mistake and all was quiet from then on. Even ended up friends with one of them.

[parkside19015]

We are having the same issue here in Parkside Pa. Here is a Ordinance that was revised 2 times and then advertise and still failed to pass from a few Council members. Where is the common sense of these few?

Ordinance 495

Section 1: That is shall be unlawful and it is herby prohibited for any person or persons, except in defense of person or property, to discharge any shotgun, rifle, gun, pistol, revolver, pellet gun, BB gun, or other firearms in the pursuit of game, target practice, or for the purpose of amusement for himself or others within the limits of the said Borough of Parkside

Section 2: That is shall be unlawful and it is herby prohibited for any person or persons, except in defense of person or property, to discharge any compound bow, within the limits of said borough of Parkside.

Section 3: Nothing in this ordinance shall make it unlawful for any person to use or have in his possession any air rifle or air gun in the said Bourgh of Parkside, if it is:

( i) used by and/or under the supervision guidance and instruction of a responsible adult; and
(ii) used in or on any private grounds or residence under circumstance when such air riffle can be fired, discharged or operated in such a manner as not to endanger persons or property, and then only, if such manner as to prevent the projectile from transversing any grounds or space outside the limits of such grounds or residence.

Section 4: Any Borough police officer is herby authorized to seize and impound any shotgun, rifle, gun. Pistol, revolver, pellet gun, BB gun, firearm or compound bow which is used in violation of the foregoing provisions. Police Officers shall be prohibited from seizing other weapons that are on the premises and not in used in direct violation of the foregoing provisions.

Section 5: Penalties: Any person or persons, firm or corporation violating any of the provisions of this Ordinance shall be subject to a fine as outlined below:
* Discharged of any Air Rifle or Air Gun - Up to $300.00 fine plus cost of prosecution.
* Discharged of a shot gun, rifle, fun, pistol, revolver, pellet gun, BB gun, compound bow, or any other
Firearms - Up to $600.00 fine plus cost of prosecution.

Section 6: Any weapon seized or impounded by a Borough Police Officer pursuant to the provisions of this ordinance shall be returned to the property owner when so directed by a Court of competent jurisdiction.

Section 7: All ordinances or parts of ordinances inconsistent with the provisions of this ordinance are herby repealed.

[FormerPaConstable]

That's ridiculous. If he's target shooting safely then he shouldn't have to do anything but prove that he is. Safety zones only pertain to hunting distances, not target shooting. If he was on that large of an acreage and was shooting safely, no PSP should have done any more than verified that.

[FormerPaConstable]

IMO State Police CAN make arrests pursuant to local ordinances...

No, the PSP CAN'T enforce local ordinances, just state laws.
Endangering others in the discharge of a firearm is CERTAINLY a state law however, if that's what occurred...

[OldSchoolPC]

Yes, I know it's an old thread...


Suppose a person who, living in an township/borough that has no discharge ordinances, blasts a pesky rabbit that's been eating at he garden. This taking place in his small backyard which is surrounded by neighbors. Could a person be charged for that? Reading up on reckless endangerment, I am not seeing that being the case.

Yes, anybody CAN be charged with ANYTHING. But, would it actually stick?