Shooting out of a car??

[Bigjake]

they do it in all the greatest gun flicks. the dude either hangs out of the vehicle somehow and blasts away, or shoots through a the already shattered windshield.

my question is this, on my land, with my field car, is it legal for me to go blasting away out of a moving vehical? i always wanted to do that just to mess around, and in a couple instances i've used a pickup for a mobile stand while hunting skunks and that worked out, but is all of this legal? does anyone know of a law that would cause police cars and black helicopters to decend me if i tried that?? just a curiousity mostly.

NOTE- this is on private property, well away from any houses with a good backstop for miles..

 

[spacemanspiff]

dunno about your state, but up here in alaska it is a 'misconduct involving weapons'.


11.61.190 - misconduct involving weapons in the first degree
A person commits the crime of misconduct involving weapons in the first degree if the person
discharges a firearm from a propelled vehicle while the vehicle is being operated and under circumstances manifesting substantial and unjustifiable risk of physical injury to a person or damage to property.
class A felony

11.61.200 - misconduct involving weapons in the third degree
...discharges a firearm from a propelled vehicle while the vehicle is being operated in circumstances other than described in AS 11.61.190
class C felony


no mention is made anywhere about private property/public.

 

[Cacique500]

.

 

[45crittergitter]

That depends on your state. In most states, you cannot hunt from a motorized vehicle. However, shooting but not hunting may be legal, assuming you can convince the game warden that you were not hunting (set up some paper targets). In MS this is the case.

 

[TallPine]

and under circumstances manifesting substantial and unjustifiable risk of physical injury to a person or damage to property.

 

[4v50 Gary]

My brother & I have done it for fun in NV. The old Landrovers had a folding side step that you can stand on. One arm is inside the window holding the grab bar while the gun hand is free to shoot. Not great for accuracy, but it's a lot of fun. Be sure of your backstop (we had a hillside) that we set up our b-27s on.

 

[HankB]

NOTE- this is on private property, well away from any houses with a good backstop for miles..

If you've got a good backstop for miles, who's to know?

(And if you DON'T have a good backstop for miles, you shouldn't be doing it . . . if you hit a pothole at speed and it really jostles your aim, who knows where the bullet will end up?)

 

[Mike Irwin]

If it's on private property, that means that the road is a private road, right?

You should be gold as long as there aren't any other restrictions on your shooting on private property.

 

[RustyHammer]

.... the "only if you get caught rule" comes to mind. Depending upon location, local laws, codes and such.

 

[Art Eatman]

In the Alaska law, the key word is the "and" in the middle of the sentence.

"...if the person
discharges a firearm from a propelled vehicle while the vehicle is being operated AND[/] under circumstances manifesting substantial and unjustifiable risk of physical injury to a person or damage to property."

No risk, no injury, no damage = no crime.

Art

 

[rayra]

Just tell'em your a Cowboy Action shooter and your horse is at the shop


Once Upon A Time, I was at an outdoor public range in the Angeles National Forest (Kentucky Canyon to be exact). There were about a dozen parties along the road / firing line. Along comes a Monte Carlo of all things, how they got down the eroded dirt access road I have no idea. Three 'youts' in the car. (you can see it coming, can't you?)
The car is pulled far forward, and at an angle.
Lo and Behold, a shotgun slides out the window, from the back seat - (BOOM) (BOOM) (BOOM).
Rest of the place falls silent in disbelief (and re-orients towards these idiots)
Then the armed Forest Ranger (who was right up the line) approaches the vehicle from the rear quarter, orders them out of the car.
A brief check of the vehicle, no one claims ownership of the weapon, no one in the car is over 18, and there is some problem about the License / Registration of the vehicle as well.
They were detained while local Sheriffs were called.

Don't have the law cite handy, but I'm 99% sure I read (while searching gun laws on another matter) that firing a firearm from wihtin a vehicle is illegal here in California.

 

[Bigjake]

the "only if you get caught rule"

The Hillbilly Code!!. thats what i figured. i tried this hanging out the window of a pickup with my 12 ga at some siliouettes on a hill. lots of fun till my dad showed up and hollered that he thought it illegal and didnt want it going on on his property until he was sure it was legal.

what i really want to try is sheet off a moving flatbed. we have a one ton chevy that would be perfect. i saw this idea a while back on the history chanel, thats how they used to train ww2 gunners for b-17 crews. looked like a fun challege.

 

[Travis McGee]

A long long time ago, we used to stand in the backs of jeeps and pickups and hang onto the roll bar with one hand, while blasting away at jackrabbits with the other while tearing across the badlands. This was in the Cali desert, and there may have been other safety violations involved, but I can't remember, those brain cells are mostly unaccounted for.

 

[jsalcedo]

There used to be a range I would go to in the hill country where you just
drove up to the table where you wanted to shoot.

It was really cold one day 19 degrees with 30mph winds so I decided to sit in the car while I loaded my black powder percussion pistol.

When it was ready I could roll down the window aim and fire using my side mirror as a rest.

The car did get a little stinky from all the black powder though.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I'm surprised people haven't concocted a shooting discipline out of it by now. How about the International Motor Vehicle Shootists' Association?

 

[RocketMan]

Art,

Take a look again at 11.61.200. It appears to be the catch-all that makes it illegal in all other cases not covered by AS 11.61.190.

11.61.200 - misconduct involving weapons in the third degree
...discharges a firearm from a propelled vehicle while the vehicle is being operated in circumstances other than described in AS 11.61.190
class C felony

I'm not a lawyer, so YMMV.

 

[jaysouth]

At a family reunion in Arkansas, several years ago, some family members took turns shooting out of a rented lincoln towncar being driven around the berm of a stock pond. A styrofoam cooler was anchored in the middle of the pond with a length of line and a brick. To keep damage to a minimum, a "safety" was posted in the back seat whose job it was to push the shooter far enough forward to keep his/her elbows outside of the car while firing.

After everyone got their turn and several hundred rounds were fired, the "target" was retreived. The only damage was THREE bulletholes. After several cases of beer while discussing our collective marksmanship, we all decided that it was my 80 year old mother who scored all three of the hits out of ten rounds that she fired from her personal glock.

A recent addition to the family, a new niece newly arrived from France, could only shake her head at the spectacle of people who should know better combining with gusto the pleaseures of gunpowder, alcohol and gasoline. Only in Arkansas!!

I know that my name still rings a bell in a large national car rental company's computer. When I turned the car in at the airport in memphis, it was coated several inched deep with mud and cow manure and had several hundred cartridge cases and several dozen empty beer cans rolling around on the floor.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Pretty sure firing a shotgun at roadsigns from a moving car is a national pasttime in the CSA. Just remember folks, smaller shot can bounce back and blow out your windshield.

 

[Covey Rise]

haha

Jaysouth that was a wonderful Arkie tale.

In texas it's legal to hunt upland game from a vehicle, and in South Dakota road hunting is legal. I have shot quite a few pheasant from the bed of a pickup and the cab in states that allow it.

Pure fun.

 

[106rr]

I spent 5 or 6 months of my year in Nam shooting from the back of a M151AC gun jeep. We used M79s, 45s, and M16s (when they functioned) later in my tour, they had rat patrol jeeps with an M60 on a high mount. The M151AC was a 106 Recoilless Rifle gunjeep. You couldn't really shoot the 106RR while you were moving. We missed often with small arms when we fired from a moving jeep even with a lot of practice. An assault with gunjeeps looks like a Baja race with machine guns blasting. The accident rate was HIGH! There is a reason why it's a safety issue.
I would say it's something that looks good in the movies but doesn't really work out.

 

[Hal]

my question is this, on my land, with my field car, is it legal for me to go blasting away out of a moving vehical?

Do a search for :
ORC 2923.16

More nebulous Ohio BS

Fricken police state

 

[Bigjake]

(a) The person discharges a firearm from a motor vehicle at a coyote or groundhog, the discharge is not during the deer gun hunting season as set by the chief of the division of wildlife of the department of natural resources, and the discharge at the coyote or groundhog, but for the operation of this section, is lawful.

(b) The motor vehicle from which the person discharges the firearm is on real property that is located in an unincorporated area of a township and that either is zoned for agriculture or is used for agriculture.

(c) The person owns the real property described in division (D)(2)(b) of this section, is the spouse or a child of another person who owns that real property, is a tenant of another person who owns that real property, or is the spouse or a child of a tenant of another person who owns that real property.

(d) The person does not discharge the firearm in any of the following manners:

(i) While under the influence of alcohol, a drug of abuse, or alcohol and a drug of abuse;

(ii) In the direction of a street, highway, or other public or private property used by the public for vehicular traffic or parking;

(iii) At or into an occupied structure that is a permanent or temporary habitation;

(iv) In the commission of any violation of law, including, but not limited to, a felony that includes, as an essential element, purposely or knowingly causing or attempting to cause the death of or physical harm to another and that was committed by discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle.


Umm... interpret that?

 

[jaysouth]

Dr. Rob,

In my small part of the CSA a generation or so ago, the smallest shot size commonly used was #4 buck for shooting ducks on the water or long range shots on doves sitting on power lines.

Some years ago, the Department of transportation in AR was concerned that the state had the hightest rate of fatalities in pick-up truck acccidents.

A random sample of trucks was selected and voice recorders were installed in each truck in the test. After a year, the voice records from each accident involving trucks in the sample was evaluated and tabulated. The most commonly recorded results immediately before an accident were:

1. Holy S**t

2. Dammit, I tole you to git them brakes fixed.

3. Hey bubba, hold mah beer n' watch this.

 

[OneShot]

The DUMBEST thing I ever did was to fire a .45 cal Derringer out of my car window just before dark.....The noise deafened me, The muzzel flash blinded me so bad that I couldn't see where I was driving. Luckily, I was able to stop the car without driving into the river.

Like I said, The STUPIDEST thing I have ever done---Oneshot