Gettysburg to adopt revised gun law

[rev214]

This is more of a blank ammunition...and permit/fee collection...issue.

If adopted, the amended firearms ordinance includes provisions for re-enactments and other events where blank ammunition is fired in the borough.
By ERIN JAMES
The Evening Sun

Posted: 05/03/2009 06:38:37 PM EDT

Gettysburg officials are planning to amend a borough ordinance that regulates the discharge of firearms, adding sections specific to military ceremonies and re-enactment events.
If the Borough Council adopts the ordinance as it appears in draft form, the organizers of such events would be required to obtain and pay for a permit from the borough before shooting blank ammunition.

Officials have plans to vote on advertising the ordinance at the council's May 11 meeting so that it can be adopted in June - in time for many of the re-enactment events that take place in Gettysburg each year.

The borough's existing ordinance that regulates firearms dates back to 1968 and reads, "No person shall, except in defense of person or property, fire or discharge any gun or other firearm within the Borough of Gettysburg."

That vague description leaves a lot to interpretation, Mayor William Troxell said at a Public Safety Committee meeting in March. Troxell urged the Borough Council to consider amending the ordinance so that it no longer neglects to address the longtime Gettysburg tradition of discharging guns during re-enactment events and military ceremonies.

Following in the footsteps of previous mayors, Troxell said he often grants permission to groups like the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, which request the right to fire blank cartridges. But Troxell said that practice had been called into question, given the language of the firearms ordinance.

The issue was reviewed by the borough's ordinance committee, which developed the new draft.
"It seems like it should handle the problems that we have," Troxell said of the draft.

In addition to re-enactments, the amended ordinance also requires permits for events like parades, demonstrations and sporting events that would include the discharge of blank ammunition.

Event organizers would need to obtain a permit from the police chief or mayor, according to the ordinance draft.

Councilman John Butterfield, who chairs the committee, said officials also need to adopt a resolution that sets fee rates for permits. He said committee members would prefer to set two fees - one for an individual event and one for groups that hold multiple events each year.

There hae been no discussion on the amount of fees. And the decision on fees will be made separately from the ordinance.

"We didn't want to put the fees in the ordinance because fees change so often," he said.

IF YOU GO
What: Gettysburg Borough Council meeting
When:7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 11
Where: Gettysburg Borough municipal building, 59 E. High St.

[djturnz]

Yup. A guy gets his toe blowd off by a blank last year, and now we get this.