FL legal question re: gun discharging and wild pests within suburban municipality

[beerslurpy]

The dilemma:
something is taking racoon/cat sized poops in and around my swimming pool and occaisionally killing and eating frogs as well. I want to wait for it and shoot it with a small caliber firearm until it dies. I need to know if this is legal. If not, I would like to know what I can do that is legal. If it is legal, I would like to know what legal pitfalls I have to be mindful of.

Preemption and the bounds thereof:
Looking at florida law and what legal precedent I could get ahold of it seems that thanks to 790.33 (state preemption) and NRA vs City of South Miami (2002) and Penelas v. Arms Technology, Inc (ongoing?) it has been found that 790.33 is an unbounded prohibition against regulation of any aspects of firearms, ammunition and shooting by local governments. Additionally, this prohibition extends not just to the legislature, but to other branches of government as well. According to the Florida attorney general (in an opinion written in July 2005), this applies to laws regarding the discharge of firearms. Only the state may make such laws.

State laws regarding discharge of firearms:
790.15 forbids the discharge of a firearm in a "public place." Different Florida laws define "public place" in different ways. None explictly define it in regards to firearms discharging. It is some area visible to the public or is it actually publically owned property and throughfares?
790.25 spells out, in a non-comprehensive way, certain areas that are expressly protected as legal:
-Citizens of this state subject to duty in the Armed Forces ... when training or preparing themselves for military duty (possibly useless unless you can prove an intent to enroll and that shooting at animals was somehow military training, which it isnt)
-A person engaged in fishing, camping, or lawful hunting or going to or returning from a fishing, camping, or lawful hunting expedition (does killing of pest species count as hunting?)
-A person firing weapons for testing or target practice under safe conditions and in a safe place not prohibited by law or going to or from such place (is the curtilage of my house private property? is it a "safe condition"? is it prohibited by law?)
-A person possessing arms at his or her home or place of business (says nothing about discharging)

Anyone care to take a lawyerly guess?

 

[Ledhead686]

I'm no ambulance chaser, but far as I know, you cannot discharge a firearm within the city limits of any municipality in Fl. The FWC will probably tell you to set traps so the little darlings can be safley re-located to once again "poop" all over someone else's property.

Led

 

[antarti]

Are you technically in Hernando County or Spring Hill proper? I think that would make all the difference. In unincorporated Pasco, it used to be something like "any animal that wanders onto your property is domestic livestock" (depending on size of your property too) and you could do what you wished. A call to the public library should help, if not, the local constabulary could.

Personally, I would take an old dry kitchen sponge and sop up all the bacon grease from the pan after breakfast, cut into bite size pieces, and sprinkle on the lawn. Whatever eats them won't last a week.

 

[beerslurpy]

Thanks guys. Ledhead, what is the basis for that prohibition on discharging in munipalities. I didnt find it in the firearm crimes section or the municipalities section of the Florida State laws. Is it based off a court decision?

If firearm discharge statutes are preempted by state law, shouldnt that be where all such laws are found?

I think I am in Spring Hill proper. I am one block south of Spring Hill drive, due east of the US19 WalMart.

 

[Dave P]

22 shorts can be your friend - very quiet. If you think the neighbors would notice, follow it up with a couple of firecrackers!

 

[Ledhead686]

beerslurpy -- I'm guessing the reason for the ban is "public safety", with residential crowding and all. I don't know for sure that you can't discharge firearms in all municipalities in Fl. (it's what I've been told), but I do know it's illegal to do so here in Inverness. I imagine the same would be true for Spring Hill.

Led

 

[beerslurpy]

But in the past 3 years, those local bans have been overridden by NRA v South Miami. I have a feeling I will have to ask a lawyer about it. Public safety was ruled to be a laudable but essentially unlawful reason to regulate firearms on the local level. The Legislature of FL has reserved that right to itself.

 

[Ledhead686]

Good luck with the lawyer thing, beerslurpy. It probably will take a professional to answer your question -- seeing as how legislators don't really give a damn how confusing gun laws are to us common folk.

Following up on Dave P's suggestion, a pellet gun might do the trick also.

(btw, Dave -- love your signature! )

 

[WT]

Dave P - I like the way you think.

I'll be in Vero Beach next month. Any gunshops worth seeing in the area?

 

[Ledhead686]

Just don't head over here to Citrus County, WT. Hell, there's one gun store in the entire county (that I know of) and no ranges whatsoever. And this in an area where practically everyone owns a gun and half of these people hunt.

Go figure.

 

[TarpleyG]

Get a Marlin 60 or some other such .22 rifle and use Colibri sub-sonics. It makes less noise than a pellet gun I am told and pushes along at 600-700 FPS--more than enough to dispatch most critters and keep the law at bay.

Greg

 

[beerslurpy]

Isnt hernando sportsman's club in citrus county? Now that I think of the name of it, probably not. Hernando county has a ton of gun stores and a huge outdoor range. One county south.

 

[Ledhead686]

Yes, it is. But if I'm not mistaken, it's private membership -- not open to the public. Kane's Ace Hardware (on US 19 in Homosassa) used to have an indoor range, but it's since closed. I have to drive forty miles to The Gun Range in Leesburg to plink at a range.

 

[beerslurpy]

It's open to the public, I go there all the time. I think they recently raised their range fee to like 10 dollars, but its hardly a great hardship. For about 10-15 bucks in fees and targets you can have a whole day's worth of shooting.

 

[Ledhead686]

I'll check then out then, hell, it's right up the road from me.

btw -- Is that $10 an hour, or all day. I pay $8 an hour where I go (for handgun -- rifle's $15 an hour. And they don't have yearly membership).

 

[Ledhead686]

Disregard above post, beerslurpy. I just looked up their site and apparently it's a helluva lot better deal than what I've got now. Ten bucks to shoot all day and $400 for lifetime membership. Can't beat that with a stick.

Glad I stuck my nose into this thread -- you may have saved me lots of $$$ and wear and tear on my car. Thanks.