Interesting
A case about a gun range and annoyed neighbors. Apparently, it matters to the local alt weekly that some of the guns were machine guns. Judge tells complainers to get bent.
I’m often amused at how often people seem to move near a gun range then are surprised that it’s loud sometimes.
July 6th, 2009 at 8:54 am
I live withing 2 miles of one of the largest ranges in the US – Ft. Bragg in North Carolina. Not only do the shells sound loud, they rattle the china. If you stand and listen, you can hear the .50 rattling off a few too.
And – to me – it is all a beautiful sound. The sound of freedom.
July 6th, 2009 at 9:05 am
We have that sort of problem a LOT here in suburban sprawl land. People keep moving further and further out to plant their McMansions…and then are surprised they’re near firing ranges and race tracks that have been there for the better part of the last century.
Guess which one they think need to go.
Dear assholes: if you move near a race track and decide you don’t like the sound of cars in the distance…whose fault is that? Think hard…
July 6th, 2009 at 9:08 am
The general obliviousness to the first rule of real estate (Location! Location! Location!) among home buyers is truly amazing.
I was once chided by a realtor for my boldness as I started climbing onto a back yard fence to look into the neighbor’s yard. The two chained up pit bulls that went crazy when they saw my head appear over the 6′ fence, and the five motorcycles parked on the weedy lot, told me all I needed to know about the neighborhood. And I chided the realtor right back for not telling me there was a biker hangout across the fence.
Other unrecognized local issues are train tracks, (which are quiet except when the 6 daily trains run on them, often at 12, 3, and 5 a.m.), sewage treatment plants (especially bad in summer, but not early spring when you buy your house), shopping centers with extremely bright lights (that you won’t notice unless you cruise your potential neighborhood at night), schools with even brighter lights and crowds at sporting events every weekend, and traffic during rush hours.
My wife and I chose one house after cruising down the street it was on about a dozen times in a week, and speaking with about a dozen of the residents who were in their yards trimming the lawn or watching their kids play. We were impressed that they noted a stranger in a car on the street, and that they were nice people when we spoke to them about the house for sale.
Location! applies not just to the house, but to everything around it.
July 6th, 2009 at 9:10 am
In North Carolina, the California of the South.
Quelle surprise!
July 6th, 2009 at 9:38 am
I am bemused by the argument in the comments over there, which seems to boil down to:
Party A: Land was there first.
Party B: So?
Party A: So, the homeowners don’t have a right to shut down his range just because they don’t like the noise.
Party B: Nuh-uh!
There are also some complaints about possible ricochets and shots missing the berm, but I’d wager that ricohets are mostly a non-issue with all the trees, and the shooter is probably still responsible for shots over the berm.
The writer’s especially amusing, since he seems unwilling to deal with the substance of that claim, only remarking that it’s not settled until the lawyers are done fighting over the scraps. I suppose that’s true, but it seems to miss the point …
I’m inclined to think that Dr. Land is probably being inconsiderate. OTOH, if I were in his shoes, I’d probably be an irascible old cuss, too.
July 6th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Off topic, but I gather from Tam’s comment that Union County is in South Carolina. Other than clicking “Home” I didn’t conduct an exhaustive search on the paper’s web site for where Union County is, but it’s not immediately apparent. I’ve noticed this a lot on web versions of newspapers – they don’t seem to realize people outside their dead tree delivery area might stumble across their web site.
And they wonder why their industry is failing.
July 6th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Locally, the Garland, TX Public Range has had several attempts to force outright closure, or to make restrictions or modifications (they can line up tires and shoot through the centers!) because of development nearby. The last attempt, about 3 years ago, seems to have some political motivation via pressure from a developer who thought the swamp it is built on has some higher value as a commercial retail venture.
Lately, the most complaints have been from folks who try to flyfish in the creek behind the berm. I consider the source of the complaints, and move along to a more interesting thought.
Regards,
Rabbit.
July 6th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I too am amused (and PO’d) by those who move out into the country, and then complain of the trains, gun ranges, highway traffic, etc.
Best one I heard – with a good outcome – was some lady who moved into a new development and was getting settled in her McMansion. A coyote ran into the yard and snatched the lady’s little fru-fru dog and ran off with it for a snack.
Panicked, she called animal control, and demanded that the officer come kill the coyote. To which the officer responded – Lady, you moved into the coyote’s neigborhood – and hung up.
OK, good outcome for the coyote, not for the fru-fru dog.
July 6th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
If those homeowners were serious about reducing noise, then they’d start a petition to legalize (moreso) sound suppressors.
July 6th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Twice in two days, I have to mention the shortsightedness of the framers of the Northwest Ordinance, and the Land Ordinances that followed on it, in assuming that all settlement would eventually become cities. This is the source of the “that was then, this is now” attitude so prevalent among yuppie scum. “I was here first” has worked for me so far; my mother was an Ottawa.
In Fulton County Ohio where there are more jobs than people, the local Chamber of Commerce sends potential home-buyers a lovely lithographed brochure, showing the undeniable beauty of the place, with scratch/sniff panels of the smell of various kinds of animal manure, so no one can claim they didn’t know.
What the nation really needs, in more ways than one, is the biggest reform in the real estate business since Mason and Dixon were brought in. Up on the North Coast, we like to say that Midwestern real estate is nothing but politics, and Midwestern politics is nothing but real estate.
July 6th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
The Byron, IL drag strip, one of the oldest tracks in the country (started in ’67 or so IIRC) just went through a lengthy legal battle where the city passed an ordinance on the behalf of a bunch of people who moved into a new development across the river, and limited the track’s operating hours. It took something like 3-4 years to get the ordinance thrown out, and I think the city is still trying to find a way around the injunction.
Funny thing, I’m reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and one of the best paragraphs in the entire book is Manuel detailing the list of prohibitions on behavior some twat wants put into place. This type of behavior is what has been wrong with this country for 150 years or so.