A Florida man has constructed a makeshift shooting range in his frontyard. Yes, his front yard, in a residential area where families and children live, reported Crooks and Liars.
As one could reasonably expect, residents are extremely upset about 21-year-old Joseph Carannate building a shoddy gun range-type backstop in his front yard, which is eight feet away from his neighbors property. The backstop is merely a pile of sand that’s held together by square planks of wood. That contraption was then surrounded with wooden shipping pallets.
“I don’t want to hurt myself or any neighbors. I don’t want to hurt anybody. I just want to use this as my enjoyment,” protested Carannate. “I don’t want to have to go to a gun range, when I can just go outside my door.”
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but this young man doesn’t seem to realize that his intent doesn’t matter here. What matters is the comfort and safety of his neighbors, which Carannate disregards just because he wants to shoot his 9mm pistol in his front yard. Carannate noted that he plans to notify neighbors when he’s going to shoot.
“You heard him say, I’ll tell the neighbors when I’m getting ready to fire. What, do we gather our children and hide? Ridiculous. C’mon,” said neighbor Patrick Leary.
“I don’t consider it responsible, I don’t consider it reasonable,” said another neighbor, Kendra O’Connor. “He’s asking me to go inside my house, go to the other side of the house, as he’s informing me he’ll fire his weapon.”
What about the legality? Surely, any state legislature would have enough common sense to outlaw someone putting a shooting range in their front yard, in a residential area, right? Not in Florida. It’s totally legal in the Sunshine State.
The Sun Sentinel reported that “Florida law allows people to build and maintain shooting ranges” in their yards. Only when the “owner becomes negligent or reckless,” can any action be taken. Police have already been called to Carannate’s residence, and they’ve noted that he’s acting legally.
In 2011, Florida’s municipal governments began pushing for bans on legal, private gun ranges. However, that effort was quickly snuffed when the National Rifle Association began lobbying the state legislature to block such efforts. The NRA, the country’s largest special interest group, was successful in pushing the block of common sense, gun range bans.
Florida isn’t just a gun state, it’s the gun state. The state’s backwards laws on guns have led to many unnecessary killings and accidents, namely the Trayvon Martin killing.
