Why are PA LEO's becoming *this* over-zealous?

[FireGS]

I'm not sure if this is the right section for this rant or not, but I've got a problem/greviance to expound upon.

I live in the Lehigh Valley - Center Valley/Upper Saucon Township, to be precise. I live on Rural-zoned property, which means I am legally allowed to shoot on my property, given that I shoot into a "proper backstop" (very ambiguous, btw).

So, that said - why is it that everytime either myself, my family, neighbors, distant neighbors, or friends of friends shoot in this area, WITHOUT FAIL - Law Enforcement shows up to shut us up, point guns at us, or threaten us for shooting? I'll explain.

A few years ago, my family threw a 4th of July party at our place, and four LEO's showed up and made up a lie about how/why they were called there - gave no proof of their acusations, and left without any arrests made.

Proof:


But that incident isnt what this post is about. Since then, my father once shot two rounds from his 500S&W on our property, and full SWAT showed up, K9 units, full assault gear, FA AR's, the works. They showed up because "they were investigating a shooting", with no warrant. We told them to GTFO, and they did.

We went to a friends house in Limeport, also rural zoned. Cops showed up, told us to stop shooting.

Went to a friends house in Macungie, zoned Rural, cops showed up, told us to stop shooting.

That friend in Limeport? His neighbor was shooting his shotgun on his property a few weeks back, had four offiers show up and had their AR's pointed at him, and told him to get on the ground.

Last week, our neighbor up the road shot off about 15 rounds from a pistol (I think), and 5 minutes later, we see two squad cars racing past our house up the street towards his house.

Why is this becoming the norm?

Why, if there are no local ordinances, and it is clearly legal to shoot on your own property, are the cops showing up at nearly every instance I hear of people shooting on their property? Does anyone have an explaination of this? What good is a Second Amendment if every time you *attempt* to excersize it, law enforcement shows up?

I'm getting really sick of this crap. I've told most of my friends who shoot on their property to shoot more, shoot often, and tell the cops to go fly a kite. They've done nothing wrong. If it's neighbors that are calling the cops, tell them to voice their concerns at a town hall meeting and get an ordinance passed. You live in the country - what do you expect?

Am I alone in thinking this is getting out of hand? It never used to be this bad. I remember only 4-5 years ago, never a single LEO interraction - but now its the norm.

[BimmerJon]

Shoot more, shoot more often and shoot louder

Consider getting a high fence around your property

Definitely setup video/audio cameras all around too so you can capture these intrusions

File a complaint every time they show up so you have a paper trail

[FireGS]

Definitely setup video/audio cameras all around too so you can capture these intrusions

This is definitely a must. I regret never once video taping the police. I really should have. I'll not make that mistake again.

[Jhaydeno]

....I've told most of my friends who shoot on their property to shoot more, shoot often, and tell the cops to GTF off my property.....

^^^^this (I fixed it for you)!

[FireGS]

^^^^this (I fixed it for you)!

When they showed up with SWAT at my place, the exact verbiage went like this:

"We're here to investigate a shooting, can we come in?"

"Do you have a warrant?"

"Not at this time"

"Are you planning to detain me?"

"Not at this time, sir"

"Then I'm going to kindly ask you to get the F#*k off of my porch, and take your dogs with you."

"Understood, sir."

[Lexington]

Sounds like you just volunteered your property for the next big open carry meet-n-shoot!

In all seriousness, I hope this gets resolved. We're able to shoot out on our property and we've never had a complaint or a patrol car coming by. I'm sorry you're having to go through all this.

[FireGS]

Sounds like you just volunteered your property for the next big open carry meet-n-shoot!

Ha!!

In all seriousness, I hope this gets resolved. We're able to shoot out on our property and we've never had a complaint or a patrol car coming by. I'm sorry you're having to go through all this.

It seems to be a problem with Upper and Lower Saucon PD, mostly, at least for us.

I'm just curious if anyone else is having this issue outside of our area, or if it is indeed the bridge and tunnel crowd that's moved away from big cities and moved into the pasture-side..

[jerkin]

The problem is you live too close to Philly/Jersey. You almost never hear about those things happening out West. I've never had the cops come when we shoot. Went to my Brother in laws place yesterday for a cook out and he shows me the new CZ75 he bought. I'd never shot one of the new ones so we walk around behind his house and pop off a few mag fulls. No problems, as it should be.

Some of the boroughs around Pittsburgh are like that though. They bitched at my buddy once for shooting his bow in the back yard but I think there was an actual ordinance against it if I remember right. Not certain because it was at least 20 years ago.

[Kabloosh]

They're just lonely and bored of writing traffic tickets, and would like to play Army for the day.

[B.A.]

My only advise is if you own dogs you might want to invest in some of these.

http://www.k9storm.com/tech.html