LA PORTE, Ind. — It was like stirring up a bunch of hornets, if not worse; there was so much opposition from northwestern Indiana gun enthusiasts that a LaPorte

County proposal to impose shooting restrictions was dropped like a hot potato.

 

“Don’t mess with property rights. Leave the guns alone,” said Jeremy Smith of Mill Creek, before a crowd nearly three times the size of the 60 available seats during the April 19 meeting of the LaPorte County commissioners.

 

The proposed ordinance was in response to an uptick in reports of houses struck by stray bullets and shotgun pellets, along with more complaints of noise, and would have prevented guns from being fired within 1,000 feet of a residence. Many people complained that would mean no longer being able to hunt or target-shoot on their own properties, or at some other favorite locales.

 

Before the idea was abruptly dropped, Jeremy Siford, a competitive shooter with a 75-foot-high backstop to absorb shots on his personal range outside La Porte, vowed retaliation at the ballot box if the matter was further pursued.

 

“If this is what you like, then we don’t like you,” he said.

 

The meeting started quietly, with the proposal being taken off the agenda followed by a decision to form a committee to examine the possibility of a less restrictive measure, with public comment to be accepted later during a multimonth process. 

 

The audience was asked to withhold public comment for the time being. “If you’re restricting my speech tonight then you’re a communist,” said Dennis Metheny, who explained he fought for free speech while in the military during the 1960s, and would go to court if made to keep quiet.

 

A 90-minute outpouring that included demands to know who ordered drafting of the ordinance followed. Halfway through, the commissioners decided to abandon the proposal altogether. None of them nor their attorney, Doug Biege, would reveal who specifically requested the ordinance draft.

 

“I’d like to know who is responsible for this. This is like a bad fart in a room. Everybody is pointing the other way,” said Al Stevens of Hanna.

 

Angering the crowd further was having their requests to see the ordinance turned down – initially, they were told the ordinance had been discarded, but later a motion to make the document available on the county government webpage was approved. 

  

“I thought you said it didn’t exist,” shouted one man over the a mixture of applause and jeers from the crowd. Prior to the meeting, LaPorte County Sheriff John Boyd spoke in favor of some type of ordinance, since there are no existing local provisions in the books to enforce in response to firearms-related complaints. He believed a 1,000-foot restriction was too restrictive in the more rural areas, but more fitting in the heavily populated unincorporated areas. “I think they need to strike a balance,” said Boyd.

 

Some of those in attendance suggested existing laws governing acts of criminal recklessness and mischief are already enforceable in firearms-related issues without adding to what they feel is an already high enough pile of ordinances.

 

There were also allegations of the commissioners trying to sneak the measure through because of how people were so caught off guard when the item suddenly appeared on the agenda without much advance notice. “You tried to fly it under the radar,” one man shouted out.