Next Monday night, March 15 at 6 PM the Town of Mendon Select Board will discuss a municipal Firearm Discharge Ordinance.
The ordinance would ban firearm discharge on most of the property in any town, given the setbacks from roads, trails and habitable building. They would be banning safe discharge, for other than the very few limited allowed conditions. Were a habitable building be a shed, could another property owner install a shed on their property line to bar their neighbor from using their own property for the safe discharge of any firearm or air gun?
The ordinance would ban air guns, which offer an opportunity for marksmanship training without the noise of a firearm.
Critics call the ordinance a simply draconian restriction and unreasonable government restriction of the use of private property and say it violates the 5th Amendment rights of property owners as well as 2nd Amendment rights.
The ordinance reads, “No person shall discharge a firearm or air gun within 500 feet of the travelled way of a town road or highway, state highway, designated hiking trail, or habitable building.” The ordinance includes exemptions for police, hunters, trappers, and people acting in self-defense.
Mendon Town Office, 2282 US Route 4, Mendon, VT 05701 in the outside mailbox attached to the building. Comments can be submitted to the Selectboard in writing by mail to Sara Tully, Town Administrator at the above referenced Town Office address or by email to mendonadmin@comcast.net.