MEDICINE PARK –The Medicine Park Board of Trustees is getting ready to outlaw hunting and the use of firearms within the town limits.
During the board’s Jan. 16 meeting, the trustees asked town attorney Jordan Cabelka to draft two ordinances – one banning hunting within the town limits, and one prohibiting people from discharging firearms in town.The board will not take further action until the drafts are ready to consider.
Medicine Park resident Robert McMahan, who supported both bans, asked the board to consider banning the use of firearms as a public safety measure.
“As far as the guns go, that’s dangerous,” he said. “I don’t know anywhere in Medicine Park or around here that you can shoot a gun and not hit a rock. And we all know what happens when bullets hit a rock. They ricochet.” ‘It’s vague’ Police Chief Tom Crawford said the town code does not specifically address either hunting or discharging firearms within the town limits. He added that an existing ordinance does bar people from throwing or shooting stones or other objects in areas where the object might damage property or injure someone.
“Now technically, that covers discharge of any type of firearm or projectile in the town limits,” Crawford said. “However, it’s vague.”
Crawford said nothing in the town code addresses hunting within the town limits, but state law says people may not hunt or discharge a firearm within 440 yards of a church or other public place. He said the law also prohibits shooting across a public road, highway, right of way or railroad right of way.
“I can enforce the state statute – firearms in the town limits – but I can’t enforce the hunting,” Crawford said. “Because you can hunt on private property, by state statute.”
Cabelka said he thought the town’s existing ordinance does cover hunting, because it bars people from throwing or shooting objects into or across a street.
“If they shoot a deer in town, then this ordinance would apply,” he said. “It doesn’t specifically say ‘hunting,’ but it says you can’t shoot, basically, any object.”
Trustee Dwight Cope said he put the issue on the agenda because he thought the existing regulation was vague and confusing.
“Other people have looked at it and said, ‘You don’t have an ordinance that says, ‘No hunting,’” he said. “I want an ordinance that says, ‘No hunting within the town of Medicine Park.’ That’s all.”
‘Two separate ordinances’ Crawford said he thought the town needs one ordinance to address the hunting issue, and a separate regulation covering the discharge of firearms in town.
“I can still enforce the firearms (rule) based on our ordinance,” he said. “I just can’t enforce the hunting, but the firearms more or less covers it. I just need two separate ordinances to clarify, so that we don’t have this problem.”
In other business, Deputy Town Clerk Colleen Murphy was sworn into office.