In the long winded soap opera that has gripped Johnston County, NC, gun owners again have to defend their rights against yet another measure by the local government to restrict them. An alert by the good folks at GRNC gives us an indication of what is going on there:
http://www.grnc.org/grnc-alerts-archive/344-grnc-alert-8-30-12-johnston-county-doesnt-want-to-hear-from-you
After supposedly settling this issue last year in a series of county meetings, the Johnston County Board of Commissioners attempted to bypass the current "Good Neighbor" laws in place by holding a quiet vote without input from the public. The latest foray into gun control in Johnston county comes via a new set of proposals hidden under the cloak of a new noise ordinance.
On August 6th, 2012, the commissioners voted unanimously to approved the noise ordinance. Only the happenstance of one commissioner not being there to vote kept the measure from becoming law. Due to state law, the issue must again come up for vote in their next meeting which will be held on September 4th at 6:00pm.
At first, this second vote was to happen without the public's input as some of the commissioners had felt that time to public discussion was over after the last meeting...of which they said nothing to the public that a vote was occurring in the first place. Nice try, Sparky, but this isn't the way to do things.
So, now the word is out and I'm having a great time watching the individual commissioners scrambling around in an entertaining game of Save Ass. Some of them are now saying that they didn't have an idea that this was happening and that they will pull the gunfire elements out of the proposal. Others are saying that this vote in September will, of course, be open to public comments...after saying it wouldn't be. Still others appear to know nothing about the whole thing. Yet, remember that the vote to approve the ordinance was unanimous on August 6th!
Lies are best conducted with no public record to reveal them, guys and gals. Just sayin'.
Why is this all happening? Well, it appears that one resident in Johnston County has ben being an ass by bugging his neighbors with gunfire. Th neighbors moved next to him roughly a year or two ago and complained that they didn't want to hear his gunfire. They've called teh Sheriff's department, the Board of Commissioners, and anyone else that would listen to try and resolve it, but the guy keps shooting.
Well, tough shit! It's his land, it's his guns, and it's his right to do so. Don't like it? Move the hell away! But, being that people can never seem to grasp that concept, the neighbors decided to try and shut him down via legislation.
Personally, I believe the new noise ordinance is an attempt to shut this one guy down and that the law will be sparsely, if ever, used again once that's done. But, the pure idiocy of creating restrictive legislation and applying it to the entire county in an attempt to shut one resident down is nothing short of lunacy.
Let's say they accomplish their goal and this guy moves to, say, California or something. What is the county left with? Yeah, a restrictive set of nose laws that can be used to shut down anyone, anytime, within the county.
The proposal is too wide, too obscure, and too stupid to be passed. There simply has to be another way to deal with one person in a county without creating massive restrictions and putting the rest of the county under its yoke.
So, the call goes out: If you are a resident of Johnston County, you need to make sure you show up to the meeting that will be held on September 4th at 6:00pm. Let the commissioners know that your voice will be heard, and that passing these ridiculous examples of proposals is not the way to deal with one person.
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