A couple of rural Hillsborough County residents are asking their local representative to file a bill updating the backyard shooting law to include specific safety protocols and time limits.

  • Backyard gun range law allows shooting in rural communities
  • "Rural" defined as one home per acre
  • Residents asking for safety inspections, time limits

“All we’re asking is that the target ranges set up here be inspected for safety,” said Dr. Briar Mitchell. “So, we avoid the stray bullets, and that there’s a time limit or even a caliber limit on the weapons, because the noise is just mind boggling.”

Mitchell said she captured cell phone video of her neighbor firing a large caliber gun for three hours straight in his backyard on Sunday.

“I had a friend over for coffee, to visit, she just had to leave,” Mitchell said. “We couldn’t hear each other.”

The Sundance community resident complained to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, but said deputies couldn’t do anything about it. Mitchell said gunfire sound is not covered in the noise ordinance, and her neighbor knows it.

“He doesn’t care. The law’s on his side,” she said. “As soon as the deputies leave, he just goes right back to shooting.”

Mitchell’s neighbor declined a request for an interview.

In February 2016, Governor Rick Scott signed a backyard gun range law into effect that made the practice illegal in residential communities. The law does allow backyard shooting in rural communities as long as reasonable safety measures are taken.

"Rural" is defined as one home per acre.

Mary Chadwick said Sundance used to be extremely rural, but because more people have been moving into the community she stopped using her backyard gun range a few years ago.

“So many homes have been built in the last ten years, it didn’t seem to be safe to us anymore,” she said. “So, we joined a gun range down in Palmetto. It just seemed like the smart thing to do.”

Chadwick said last August, the rear window of her car that was parked inside her garage was shattered by a stray bullet that was shot by one of her neighbors. Chadwick said deputies could not prove which neighbor fired the shot and she had to pay for the $450 worth of repairs.

“The sheriff’s office pretty much says their hands are tied by the law,” she said. “I had my roof replaced last March, there was a bullet hole in my roof.”

Resident Larry Malinoski, who’s a licensed NRA range safety officer, said he enjoys shooting guns in his backyard range.

“If you shoot with a good backstop, in a safe, downward manner for the distance that you have and the backstop you have, it’s perfectly safe,” he said. “You just need to be a reasonable human being.”

Malinoski said he’s not opposed to a time limit, but doesn’t like increased governmental regulations. He also said there’s no such thing as a 'backyard inspector.'

“The inspection of the range to be safe is not reasonable,” said Malinoski. “Because there are no ‘inspectors’. There are no ‘standards.’”

Mitchell said she hopes some action is taken.

“The law right now says to the people in this neighborhood, you go ahead and shoot all you want."