York County Board of Supervisors to Address Shooting Ordinances

You may recall that on May 4th, I posted that the York County Board of Supervisors was having a working session to address shooting ordinances within the county. At that meeting,
the Board reviewed and discussed the status of the various proposed amendments to Sections 16-7 and 16-37 of the County Code and provided direction to staff on the provisions to be included in a revised draft that has been scheduled for public hearing at the June 15th meeting.

The Board is scheduled to take up specific recommendations that came out of that meeting at their meeting on June 15th. There will be a citizen comment period from 6 PM to 7 PM and the ordinance will be addressed by the Board after 7 PM in it's regular place on the agenda.

The ordinance in question can be found here. An explanation of the various changes in the proposal can be found here.

In short, the proposals restrict discharge of firearms and in some cases air rifles, in designated areas with some limited exceptions. The proposal also changes the distance from which a firearm may be discharged near a school.

The exceptions include:

• in connection with a managed hunt to control the deer population;
• in defense of one’s life; and
• to kill a dangerous or destructive animal (note: this provision was revised to drop the word “wild”, thus allowing it to apply to any dangerous or destructive animal, whether wild or domestic).

According to an email alert sent out by VCDL, the York County Sheriff believes that the county should scrap all of it's shooting ordinances and let state law govern.

Gun owners that live in York County should attend the Board Meeting in Tuesday night and let your voice be heard.

The meeting is being held Tuesday night beginning at 6:00 PM. Board meetings are held at York Hall, 301 Main Street, Yorktown, VA.