Illegal posession of firearm in CT....long story

[chuck9899]

You should call them before doing anything that is legal. "Hi guys, headed in to the bathroom. I had chili last night so I figured I would let you know in case you get noise complaints."

I think it more stems with the police now being required to investigate the complaints of gun fire. If he called ahead and told them and their was any complaints they wouldn't have to come down. Or leaving his number and them calling to confirm its him.

With things like they are politically if they didn't respond to "Shots heard" and something did happen it would be a PR nightmare and law firms would be lining up.

 

[Kevin_NH]

I think it more stems with the police now being required to investigate the complaints of gun fire. If he called ahead and told them and their was any complaints they wouldn't have to come down. Or leaving his number and them calling to confirm its him. With things like they are politically if they didn't respond to "Shots heard" and something did happen it would be a PR nightmare and law firms would be lining up.

They are? I certainly hope that's not the case in New Hampshire, or the backlog from Saturday mornings alone would take all week to work through.

i am amazed at the amount of land your buddy owns....I have no idea on the legality of shooting but i would personally think its ok to shoot on your property..but its just me thinking out loud...maybe next time you guys should go in a 150 acres so no one will hear you or see you

We were honestly way off the beaten path. His range is somewhere in the middle of the property st least a quarter to half mile from nearest house. We weren't shooting any cannons either .22, 9mm, .40. Clearly he has a neighbor who just wants to be a PITA. His family has owned the land for generations.

Sound carries, from a quarter mile away gunshots are distinctive. Some mornings I hear what sounds like full auto gunfire, the closest likely source is the police range, nearly 2 miles away.

 

[Coyote33]

... down to CT to go shooting with some buddies on their private land. ... the property owner. ... my buddies property about 11AM. He owns about 300 acres of private wooded land in Northern CT just over the MA border. His property is posted and gated, with his name, number, and address on all signs. Several years ago he built a small range on the property with a number of berms ...

... It says Target shooting OR on a firing/shooting range. So you were target shooting and should be valid for an out of stater. Just my $00.02

He was covered by BOTH reasons.

Me and a buddy were shooting my tommy gun in a sand pit somewhere on the lower cape back in the late 80's It was hunting season anyway so no big deal. A couple of cops showed up to see what was going on because a tommy gun doesn't sound like shot gun...lol. I asked if everything was ok and they were like yeah just seeing what was going on over here...They were in awe of the tommy gun. We had thrown some clay targets out around the pit and we were shooting at them. I asked it they wanted to try and they did. They were like cool gun. Thanks for letting us have a try and they went on their way. Why can't it still be like that.

It still is sometimes.

I think it more stems with the police now being required to investigate the complaints of gun fire. ...

Required? Says who? They can tell the caller to go fart in a hat.

 

[chuck9899]

probably required by Town or State policy do to shootings or some other event to at least semi investigate a disturbance of gun fire. Now that they have been to the area once or maybe a couple of times( If its a small town at least to local PD knows the area)

Please be sensible. Not everyone is as comfortable about Firearms like we are. Letting your neighbors know or inviting them over for a range session, informing Local PD on occasion. after a few weeks or months whether everyone likes it or not they will know you are being safe and legal.

 

[xtry51]

Shoot more often there. The police will stop showing up and tell the neighbors to pound sand after a few dozen calls.

 

[drgrant]

Shoot more often there. The police will stop showing up and tell the neighbors to pound sand after a few dozen calls.

In a perfect world the 2nd or third time they called about "gunfire coming from someone's farm" they'd get charged with filing a false police report. Even if the court drops it it would be enough of a pain in the ass to the whiner that they would stop doing it.

-Mike

 

[Nick Fury]

Please be sensible. Not everyone is as comfortable about Firearms like we are. Letting your neighbors know or inviting them over for a range session, informing Local PD on occasion. after a few weeks or months whether everyone likes it or not they will know you are being safe and legal.

The person who calls about sustained gunfire on a 300 acre parcel does not want a heads up or an invite. Seriously.

The only solution to this problem is to use the range daily. Anything else is just kicking the can.

Only a fool would try to reason with the unreasonable.

 

[Carl in Ct]

Just another example of the police being pawns at the whim of the moonbats. What worries me most is that it seems fewer and fewer cops are pro-gun and are all too eager to go harrass gun owners to get their little power trip for the day. The resident trooper in my small town seems like a cool guy and seems pretty intelligent to me but I have only met him in his office for administrative dealings, not out in the field.

Sounds like some towns must teach cops to be short tempered and overly hostile when they should really be the ones with a long fuse and that last to get hostile. They could ease tensions and avoid unecessary conflict by keeping cool heads but instead too often they are the hot heads that instigate and escalate problems. Then they wonder why sometimes the other guy snaps and they have a fire fight on their hands. Poor training given to people not fit for the job all too often.

 

[dcmdon]

dcmdon will probably be along shortly to tell you that those cops are ****ing clueless. Thankfully one of them was less clueless than the other one was....

-Mike

Mike you are in good company. My wife tells me I'm very predictable. Guilty as charged.

Malavaley - The cop was &%$King clueless.

You did not have to show him any ID. You'd probably been better if you didn't show a CT PP. Actually you didnt' have to show him any ID. You weren't in possession of a firearm. No ID required.

Also, remember, a pistol permit is not required to possess a handgun in CT. Only to carry it. You were on private property. So even if you did have one of your guns on you, you could have had it there legally if you had loaned it to the property owner.

This is all so so bad. All I can suggest is know what your risk tolerance is before this happens again. Are you afraid of arrest? If so, then you did the right thing, comply with their unlawful requests. You never broke any law, and you were very . . . charitable to the offending officer.

If you are up for educating the cop, then refuse unlawful requests.

The cop was a douche. Illegal possession of a firearm in CT pretty much only applies to prohibited persons, since its legal to possess any firearm in CT without state approval, other than assault weapons.

 

[dcmdon]

I am not sure what is reasonable about calling ahead to tell them you are going to be doing something perfectly legal on private property.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

We do that when we shoot my machine gun on a friends land. It does help because the frightened sheep call 911. Its a courtesy. The cop has to follow up on the call, but at least he knows ahead of time that its most likely just people out shooting. It does help to avoid things like the OP encountered.

Remember, you arent' asking permission. You are giving notice.


I used to shoot in the Stony Creek area of Branford CT. This is a pretty tightly packed shoreline community, other than the 100 acres my father's friend owned. Almost every time we shot the same cop showed up. He would apologize for disturbing us, we'd then offer to let him shoot with us, he'd politely decline, then leave.

Finally, after about 4 visits, we finally got him to shoot with us. He even had some tequilia with us. Just kidding.