The good news is that there are still a number of great places, both organized and informal to shoot. Also I was surprised to see that impressive number of organized clubs that now list airguns on their list of "What can be shot here.
Outside of State & National Parks our remote area's simply have a shoot safely rule (Examples: don't shoot across roads, no damaging property, taking game out of season, and generaly operating in a safe manner.)
With regards to county or cities the State of Oregun tells us that those entities have limitations on the reguation of the discharge of firearms in there borders, and I'm currently operating under the assumption if we can shoot firearms legaly, airguns will be okay as well. (This is something that needs to be confirmed.)
Here is part of the state language that supports firearms.
166.171 Authority of county to regulate discharge of firearms. (1) A county may adopt ordinances to regulate, restrict or prohibit the discharge of firearms within their boundaries.
(2) Ordinances adopted under subsection (1) of this section may not apply to or affect:
(a) A person discharging a firearm in the lawful defense of person or property.
(b) A person discharging a firearm in the course of lawful hunting.
(c) A landowner and guests of the landowner discharging a firearm, when the discharge will not endanger adjacent persons or property.
(d) A person discharging a firearm on a public or private shooting range, shooting gallery or other area designed and built for the purpose of target shooting.
(e) A person discharging a firearm in the course of target shooting on public land that is not inside an urban growth boundary or the boundary of a city, if the discharge will not endanger persons or property. [1995 s.s. c.1 §2]
166.172 Authority of city to regulate discharge of firearms. (1) A city may adopt ordinances to regulate, restrict or prohibit the discharge of firearms within the city’s boundaries.
(2) Ordinances adopted under subsection (1) of this section may not apply to or affect:
(a) A person discharging a firearm in the lawful defense of person or property.
(b) A person discharging a firearm on a public or private shooting range, shooting gallery or other area designed and built for the purpose of target shooting. [1995 s.s. c.1 §3]
I intend to put together a concise table of the shootin areas part two or three of this series. I need to get some official guidance on a few of the updated ordinance's.
A point of concern of all airgunners.
It seems that many municipalities have rewritten their ordinances regarding the use of pellet guns to incorporate the current air soft craze. As most readers of this blog will know airsofts (as they are commonly referred to) which propel a harmless polystyrene "bb" to short ranges. Originating in Japan, these non-guns (prior to recent legislation - "toy guns") bear resemblances to actual firearms. These resemblances vary from cartoon like mini-guns to guns that almost duplicate the originals they were based on.
Part II will be an example of how Beaverton, OR substantially amended the ordinances in response to airsofts and caught pellet gun shooters in the cross-fire.
Also, as you seen in the State Code above (any designated shooting range/target area public and private) may be used to safely discharge these devices. We even have a local school that turned part of their gym in to a shooting range for target practice. As such it may be possible for a group of Oregonians to construct an informal target course on private land and be free from ordinance violations.
Part III will include a table of gun clubs and ranges which are now supporting airgun shooting.
More to follow soon.
