By Susan Bromley
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp.- After a bullet hit a township house this week and multiple shooting complaints, police are reminding residents of gun laws.
“It is illegal to fire weapons, whether it’s hunting or target shooting, within 450 feet of a building,” said Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Greg Glover, commander of the Brandon substation. “If you do so, you can be charged with reckless discharge of a firearm.”
The warning comes after OCSO deputies responded around 5:43 p.m., March 26 to a residence in the 700 block of Sands Road after the homeowner reported shots hit his house. The man told the deputies he was outside and heard his neighbors on Butler Court shooting guns. Several bullets whistled over the man’s head and one hit his home. The deputies observed a small hole, approximately a quarter-inch in diameter through the siding on the west side of the chimney on the sout side of the house at the top of the exterior wall just below the soffit.
The neighbor on Butler said he had been shooting on this date and showed the deputies a .22 pistol, a .22 rifle, two handguns and a pellet gun as well as a large dirt pile that was used for the backstop and several bullet holes high up in the tress in front of the dirt pile. The deputy also observed the Sands house that had been shot through the trees to the left of the dirt pile and about 200 yards to the north.
After being told he had hit the complainant’s house, the man said he would no longer be shooting on his property and made a civil agreement to repair the damage done to his neighbor’s home. The man was advised of criminal consequences he would have faced if his neighbor had wished to press charges and also advised of the Ortonville Shooting Range located at 5380 Sawmill Lake Road.
Last week, Independence Township deputies responded to a home in the 6600 block of Clintonville Road where the homeowner heard neighbors shooting behind his home and a short time later, a bullet hit his glass doorwall, shattering it. No one was injured. The neighbor told deputies he thought the wooded area between the homes offered enough protection. He was cited for reckless discharge of a firearm.
Glover said in addition to it not being legal to fire guns within 450 feet of any building, whether it be a home, garage, or pole barn, it is also against the law to fire weapons on the area’s two main lakes, Lake Louise and Bald Eagle Lake, as well as within 450 feet of the water’s edge. He notes that most people don’t realize bullets will skip across water.
Even if there is no buildings or lake within 450 feet of where target practice is taking place, Glover reminds residents there is also an ordinance regarding disturbing the peace that can be violated.
“We’ve been getting numerous, numerous complaints about excessive target shooting, with guns going off for long durations of time and all different times of the day,” he said. “Have some common courtesy for your neighbors. Use the shooting range on Saw Mill Lake Road.”