While 16-11-103 regulates the distance from a public road, is there any law (other than a local ordinance) regulating the distance one must be from another's building in order to shoot?
I don't believe there is one. I did, however, check my county ordinances, which are sigificantly more restrictive than state law. 100 yards from occupied building (without permission of building's owner) 50 yards from any property line (150 feet - again, without permission of neighboring landowner).
Here is one recently adopted in a county in Mississipi - does anybody here find it unreasonable? I do. http://www.gulflive.com/news/mississipp ... 647400.xml
Three Comments Yes, that Mississippi law is unreasonable. 150 yards, or even 300 feet, is a meaningless number. If the person is shooting TOWARDS the building, without a huge and idiot-proof backstop that is safe without question, then 150 yards is too short. Make it 2 miles, since that's the range of a centerfire rifle bullet on a ricochet (3 miles for a direct shot into the air). On the other hand, if the bullet doesn't present any danger because the backstop is fail-safe and/or the bullet is not fired in the direction of the building, then the only issue is noise. And while 150 yards does a lot to diminish the noise to a safe level for your hearing, it's still loud and could be very annoying to your neighbors. No, a better solution is to bifurcate the issues-- let the potential noise problem be addressed through a civil action in tort regarding "nuisance," and let the possible safety concerns be addressed with a criminal statute that makes it a crime to handle or fire a gun in a way that puts people's lives or property at a significant risk of sustaining injury, and that is clearly contrary to both standard practice among shooters and contrary to well-established and long-recognized rules of firearm safety. ..
It's 200 yards from a building unless the property owner has provided written permission, or in the case of defensive....: It's under Misc. here: https://www.georgiapacking.org/law.php
200 yards? That's 600 feet! A year ago, this would not have been a problem for me. I lived in an area of five acre zoning, and no building was within this distance from me and my house. Then the county put in water lines, which changed the zoning by operation of law to 1.6 acres (they call this rural reserve - yeah, right ) and they built three houses right next to my property line (only has to be fifty feet or so away from the property line). I have walked over to where the houses are being constructed, and they have a beautiful view of a green forest where they have cleared their woods right up to my property line. It looks like their houses are built in the forest - MY forest. Makes me want to clear it out of spite. Leave a charred, barren landscape . . . So now I have to go all the way through the woods to the back of my property to shoot and come back covered with ticks - kind of takes the fun out of it.
Clear a path and get a Class 3 license and a machine gun. That should make the neighbors glad they built so close. I would also put up a bunch of no tresspassing signs so no idiot comes walking in front of your backstop.
You should be aware that this is something that already goes on at my house . . . That is, until somebody builds close to the back of my land. I guess one needs 40-50 acres, minimum, and even then in a very square shape, to be able to shoot without his neighbors vetoing it . . . And even then any locality in Georgia can regulate it even more. My county restrictions are posted above. They are less restrictive on the "occupied building" (100 yards), but add a restriction on being 150 feet from a property line without the permission of the neighboring landowner. I guess they could ban discharge altogether.
ICP and I have both looked and can't find anything in state law about it. I have found that you must be 50 yards away from the road while hunting on WMA property. and That is shall be lawful to hunt deer within the vicinity of such feeds if the hunter is at least 200 yards away from and not within sight of the feed or bait. Hunting game seems to be the only condition that a limitation on discharge on private property has been written at the state level. Also, wouldn't a state law conflict with the preemption allowing cities and counties the ability to reasonably restrict discharge? That is in situations other than hunting.
Whew! 200 yards seemed like an awfully long distance. So, my county ordinances control? 300 feet from houses and 150 feet from the property line I can probably accomplish.
You still gotta pay the $200 tax. And you get a "stamp," just like those that go across the top of a bottle of liquor. It goes on the ATF Form 4.