Contentious hunting bill moves toward vote (Howard County)

http://www.explorehoward.com/news/15201/contentious-hunting-bill-moves-toward-vote/

A broken day care center window, accidentally shattered by a slug from a hunter's shotgun, has sparked a countywide debate on tightening hunting restrictions in Howard County, a debate that could soon come to a close.

County Council members could vote as early as Feb. 2 on a bill that has sparked the ire of the National Rifle Association and local hunters, support from county residents who wanted to toughen local firearms laws and debate within the council itself.

More than 100 people turned out for a Jan. 21 council hearing on the bill, which was prompted by a December incident in which a hunter's shotgun blast accidentally shattered the window of a Clarksville day care center.

"The incident has gotten people's attention," County Council Chairwoman Mary Kay Sigaty said at the start of the hearing. "We've heard from many, many people already."

County Council member Greg ory Fox, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Sigaty and council members Calvin Ball and Jennifer Terrasa, said council members had heard from more than 200 people on both sides of the issue prior to the hearing.

The bill would enlarge the "safety zone" -- the distance a hunter must be from a building before firing a gun -- from 150 to 300 yards. A hunter could be as close as 150 yards, however, if shooting downward from a tree stand or using a shotgun that contains shot as opposed to a single projectile.

Hunters also would be barred from firing a gun in the direction of any building within the maximum range of the weapon being fired or hunting on less than 10 acres anywhere in the county.

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I suppose in Western HoCo there might be hunting, though I thought it was just to dense to hunt here.

It is a step in the right direction.

We're hardly "hunting country".

is only bow hunting, but it is in our back yard. They have it in Blandair Park, which is split in half by 175.

Well marked and only on a few days during the winter. No guns are allowed though.