I apologize for not posting much lately. I’ve been so extremely busy…pretty much just coming home to sleep.
BR got the attention of the neighbors today while I was at the store. He heard some shots out back in the woods behind us, so he decided to show his firepower, too. (Actually, he used it as an excuse to shoot MY new gun that I haven’t had a chance to shoot yet…*pout*).
Apparently after BR shot my new, rather loud .45, the neighbor across the street looked out his window and saw a hooded figure running down the street. His brother-in-law (from a few houses down) heard the gun shots also, and got. freaked. out. (more on that in a minute.)
The hooded figure turned out to be another neighbor investigating what happened. (What can I say, I live in a neighborhood where people run toward the gunfire…not away.) The freaked out brother-in-law conferred with neighbor-across-the-street, heard about the hooded figure, and got really worked up. Even when the hooded figure was found out to be another neighbor. I do want to state that gunfire is not uncommon in my neighborhood. No, not because of gangs or anything like that. Just redneck gun-owners who occasionally fire their weapons out in the woods.
Shortly after this, I came home. BR told me about how sweet my new gun was (he had fun blowing up water-bottles in an old stump). As I came back out to unload some stuff from my vehicle, the two neighbor guys came in my yard asking if I knew about the gunfire. I said yes, that one set was somebody out in the woods, and that the other was my husband.
B-I-L neighbor guy got freaked out. He started telling me I couldn’t shoot here. That ‘they have places’ to shoot at. I replied that we were supposed to go to the shooting range today but too much came up. I also told him we were outside of city limits, and we were on our property not aiming towards any houses. He said it was a neighborhood, and therefore we couldn’t be shooting. He had his daughter and her baby in a house down the road, and that there were other kids in the neighborhood. I told him I had kids too, and that we don’t shoot in any way that could affect other residents. Not that we do it on any regular basis anyway…maybe once a year.
He reiterated that it was a neighborhood and we can’t shoot. That there never has been any shooting in this neighborhood. I’m sure my jaw dropped at this point, because that is so untrue. Especially as hunting season gets ready to start. I told him I’ve lived here since ’02 and have regularly heard gunshots. He said he’s lived here since ’98 and NEVER heard any shooting. The guy needs his hearing checked. Of course, he doesn’t live on the edge of the woods like we do, so I guess it’s possible, especially if he stays inside a lot.
At one point, I broke into this guys’ diatribe asking him if he owns a gun. “What??” he asked, as if I spoke a foreign language. I repeated the question, and he kind of paused and said, ‘Yes’. Maybe he thought I was going to challenge him to a duel or something…who knows. But then he went right back that it was a neighborhood and we couldn’t shoot here. I told him if I were to learn we legally couldn’t, then of course we wouldn’t shoot. But otherwise, we had the right to fire our own weapons on our own property. The guy asked if we wouldn’t so his family would be safe, and I told him we don’t shoot in an unsafe manner.
The across-the-street neighbor and his b-i-l neighbor finally left, the b-i-l dialing on his cell phone. I started back home, but the across-the-street neighbor’s one-eyed dachshund followed me to my gate so I led the poor thing back to his yard. The neighbor was out in his yard, and he kind of apologized, saying he got scared seeing the hooded figure right after the shooting. I told him that of course that was understandable. He said he didn’t call the cops or anything. I told him that it’d be fine if he did…he has to do whatever is necessary to take care of his family. Then he looked down the street and saw two cars headed our way. He said that he thought it was the cops, but that he didn’t call them. I reiterated that it was fine if he did. My philosophy has always been that if you’re not doing anything wrong, you don’t have anything to worry about.
It was two highway patrol cars that showed up. I walked out to the street to meet them. The deputy asked if I knew what was happening. I told him someone was shooting in the woods, and then shortly after that my husband was shooting my new .45. The cop kind of smiled about that, told me to be sure to shoot away from residents. I told him ‘of course’, and then thanked him. He and his buddy then left. Maybe to go talk to freaked-out neighbor and tell him tough shit about our shooting.
I hate that we’ve pissed off and scared a neighbor. Especially since his sister is a judge. Who also lives in this neighborhood. But I bet she’s heard gunfire before.
And I’m pissed. In the interest of neighborliness, *I* didn’t go back and fire my gun, and I was so ready to. So maybe next weekend we will hit the range and I can play with my new buddy.
Pictures of my new buddy later.
