Carmel proposal could open gun rights vs. safety debate
When she was a little girl growing up in Parke County, Melissa Wrightsman had a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. She learned to shoot it. Now, she and her husband, Richard, are “real” gun owners — they sometimes practice at a shooting range and they go to gun shows.
They don’t shoot their weapons near their home and don’t think it’s safe for others to shoot in the neighborhood — even with air guns, BB or pellet guns.
After Wrightsman contacted Carmel City Councilor Eric Seidensticker about the issue last year, he worked with the city’s legal department to draft an ordinance change adding those kinds of guns to Carmel’s firearms ordinance. It will be discussed for the first time at 6 p.m. Thursday by the Utilities, Transportation and Public Safety Committee at City Hall.
Wrightsman — and Seidensticker — areaware that any attemptto regulate use of any firearm can be a divisive and polarizing. But they hope it doesn’t come to that.
“This isn’t a gun issue,” said Wrightsman, mother of two boys 19 months and 2½ years old. “We just want to have a reasonable, civil discussion about safety.”
It all began last year after new neighbors with sons about 9 and 12-years-old moved into a home next to the Wrightsmans in west Carmel. The subdivision includes a five-acre wooded area that abuts the neighbors’ land. Wrightsman said she noticed the older boys target-shooting in the woods — but in the direction of her backyard.
Concerned for her toddler sons, she approached the neighbors in April to discuss the matter, but said she was met resistance. In May, she twice called police about the situation but was told there wasn’t much they could do because firing BB guns and the like was not illegal. Police suggested she contact someone on the city council.
In June, she did, and Seidensticker asked the legal department to begin working on an ordinance. It was introduced Nov. 18.
By coincidence, that wasa few weeks after a teen shot and killed a Noblesville man with an air rifle. The teen and a friend had been target shooting in a nearby field but then one fired toward the man as he stood in his driveway. The teen was charged with reckless homicide.
In addition, in July, the Columbus City Council adopted a measure that prohibits the discharge of firearms, air guns, sling shots “or any device that can hurl or otherwise discharge a projectile” with the city’s limits. Significantly, the ordinance also prohibits anyone younger than 18 from displaying any of those devices.
Columbus City Attorney Jeff Logsdon said the ordinance in the city about 45 miles south of Indianapolis was spurred by concerns over police response to citizen reports of guns that turn out to be air guns or BB rifles. Many of today’s “air soft” weapons are indistinguishable to the casual observer from bullets-firing weapons, he said.
Elsewhere in the country, young people have been shot by police responding to reports of guns drawn, Logsdon noted. Air guns are supposed to have orange markings, but some people remove them, making it difficult or impossible for even police to tell the difference, he said.
“We are trying to avoid that situation that everyone’s going to regret,” Logsdon said. The city wanted to spur conversation and education, he said, and since the ordinance was passed, no one has been cited or fined for violating it.
Logsdon’s research of the issue showed Fishers and Greenwood are among the communities that already have some ban on the firing of air guns in city limits, but no others that prohibit teens from displaying such weapons. Carmel’s proposed ordinance also doesn’t include that restriction.
In Indianapolis, people charged with crimes such as robbery or aggravated assault have can faced enhanced charges if they used a BB gun or soft air gun during the crime, as those are considered deadly weapons much as baseball bats or knives, said A.J. Deere, spokesman for the Marion County Prosecutor’s office. But the discharge of BB guns and pellet guns with no consequences or injuries is not prohibited.
Although the proposed Carmel ordinance has not yet been publicly discussed, Seidensticker said he has heard from residents concerned the proposal would prevent them from safely using air guns. For instance, he said, some people have “BB catchers” set up inside their garages and target practice from outside, on the driveway. Seidensticker said he doesn’t want to prevent responsible use of the weapons and the language of any new ordinance likely would be amended to accommodate such activity.
Seidensticker, elected council president for 2014, said he wants to provoke and promote discussion and education.
“I don’t know if this is going to go anywhere,” he said. “But let’s find out.”
He emphasized that he is a Second Amendment supporter, and by his informal tally, five of the council’s seven members are firmly in that camp.
Guy Relford, an attorney who lives in Zionsville but has his office in Carmel, and who has become a leading legal defender of gun rights supporters, said the proposed ordinance isn’t needed.
Existing law allows for charges of criminal homicide in cases like the Oct. 30 shooting in Noblesville, and criminal recklessness could be charged in cases where no one was hurt, Relford said. If someone fires any weapon, or throws a rock, at someone in a populated area, they could be subject to criminal recklessess charges, he said.
Still, Relford said there is a balance to be struck between gun rights and safety, and personal responsibility and education are key. For instance, some people assume BB guns are like the Red Ryder Wrightsman grew up with — generally not lethal toys, although eye injuries can and have occurred.
But some air guns and pellet guns available today are more powerful than toys. Relford said he has one weapon that is not a “firearm” but shoots smaller projectiles at 1,000 feet per second, compared to the 850 feet per second of the handgun he carries on his hip. Bullets still are bigger, and travel farther, than BBs or pellets, but air rifles and the like require the same kind of training and safety measures, Relford said.
“Just because it’s an air rifle doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous,” he said. But law-abiding gun owners shouldn’t be penalized because some people choose to be irresponsible, Relford said.
“There’s two competing interest here,” he said — the right to bear arms and the right to be safe. “It’s a tough balance.”
Logsdon said he, too, is a Second Amendment rights supporter -- but that’s not the issue.
“This is not dealing with the Second Amendment,”Logsdon said. “These are kids and toys and safety issues.”
Call Star reporter Diana Penner at (317) 444-6249 and follow her on Twitter @dianapenner.
If you go
What: Carmel utilities, transportation and public safety committee meeting
When: 6 p.m., Thursday
Where: Carmel City Hall
If you go
What: Carmel utilities, transportation and public safety committee meeting
When: 6 p.m., Thursday
Where: Carmel City Hall