Davis bans recreational shooting along east bench; some want shooting ranges included

FARMINGTON — An amended county ordinance aims to reduce the chances of a person being accidentally shot. But a pair of Bountiful women whose homes have been hit in recent years believe it doesn't go far enough.

The Davis County Commission on Tuesday amended an ordinance banning recreational shooting east of U.S. Route 89 to an elevation of 7,000 feet. Hunting and existing shooting ranges are not affected. A trio of law enforcement officials said the ban will decrease the likelihood of people and homes being hit by stray rounds and of shots igniting wildfires.

Bountiful Police Chief Tom Ross told the commission that in the past six years, four or five homes have been shot, usually from people target-practicing from a site east of the city.

"We've seen a significant increase in not only the growth of the homes coming up on the east bench, but in the public using the Forest Service and county area for recreation," he said. "And there has been increasing concern over the years that we need to do something to try to mitigate some of this and at least minimize the risk of someone just walking along the trail and having bullets coming and going from wherever."

Ranger Brandon Robinson of the U.S. Forest Service said some people haul old TVs, washers and dryers up the mountainside to use for targets. "There have been a couple of near-misses where people just hiking trails have almost been shot," he said.

Davis County Sheriff's Capt. Randy Slagowski described the amendment as "reasonable in terms of public safety."

But the two Bountiful women say shooting ranges need to be part of the ban. Shari Gibbons and Marie Burke live about a mile from one range, and bullets have hit their homes during the past five years. Gibbons' home, hit by a shot that authorities concluded came from the range, went through the siding of her home and lodged in a hallway wall in 2005. Burke's home was struck by two shots in 2008, one through a front window and one into a brick wall.

"What happened to our home has scared us all," Gibbons said. "When our home was hit, we were crawling on our hands and knees out of the room, out of our kitchen, because we thought somebody was angry at us."

Police later concluded that three men had been shooting legally from the range but later used handguns to shoot box targets toward the city.

"The thing is, there are idiots," she said. "They are idiots because they don't know what they're doing, but we can't control the idiots. That's the thing. You've got to get them (the ranges) all off there."