Society Hill delays ‘no-gunfire’ vote
By Bobby Bryant
Editor
editor@newsandpress.net
Society Hill Town Council last week postponed a final vote on an ordinance banning gunfire inside town limits after hunters who own land inside town protested that the plan would make it illegal to hunt on their own property.
During council’s March 10 meeting, one resident told council that he owns 90 acres inside the town limits, and that he and other family members have always been able to hunt game there. “I’m concerned about (the ordinance),” he said. “I’m discharging a gun in the city limits, so that becomes a question.”
Other residents said they’ve seen “tree stands,” usually used for deer hunting, on private land in the town limits. “We’re all living in the city limits,” another resident told council, “and we’re shooting guns” when hunting.
Council voted to table the last vote on the ordinance, postponing it, at least for now. Mayor Tommy Bradshaw said members would look further into the issue.
The issue came up when town officials realized Society Hill did not have a law on its books specifically making it illegal to discharge a firearm within the town.
“It’s not that we’re going to be out there, looking for someone shooting a gun on the edge of town,” Society Hill Police Chief David Young said during last week’s meeting. “It’s just if we needed to enforce it.”
The first vote on the no-gunfire ordinance took place during council’s Feb. 11 meeting, and it won unanimous approval from council.
At last month’s meeting, Young discussed incidents of vandalism that had been taking place around Town Hall. According to the minutes from that meeting, Young reported that roofing tacks had been tossed out to puncture tires and that his own truck was vandalized – someone scraped a key or a knife across the vehicle. According to the minutes from the meeting, council also was told that someone had knocked holes in some windows at Town Hall.
