Issue of neighbors firing guns continues

Confusion remains over regulations, enforcement of shooting firearms

Confusion over Lake County laws and regulations related to shooting firearms i n South County persists as two residents addressed the Lake County Council on Tuesday to share their concerns about neighbors shooting in their backyards.

Susan Slivka, of Cedar Lake, wanted clarification on home shooting ranges and if the distance is measured from the property line or the home. Slivka told the council that her neighbor shoots on his or her property, but that her home has been hit by bullets.

“Almost every day, we have neighbors shooting,” Slivka said.

Mark Schilling, who lives in the same neighborhood, said his neighbors are “shooting into a pile of dirt.” After calling police, he said officers later told him “they approved his berm.”

“Safety is obviously the most important thing, but the other thing is the noise,” Schilling said. “If you got one person doing it maybe once a week or something, that’s OK. But if you got five, six, seven people doing this constantly it gets to be an annoyance.”

Council officials said the issue boils down to residents using the county’s shooting range ordinance, which outlines a distance of 300 feet from any residence and requires a backstop or berm, to address neighbors shooting recklessly.

Another challenge, sheriff ’s officials said, is that the population of Hanover Township is increasing, so residents who have fired guns on their property for years are now being met with complaints from neighbors.

Second Amendment advocate Mike Lee, of Lowell, said there’s confusion in South County over shooting on residential property because in January 2019 Lake County Council tried to increase the shooting range distance to 700 feet of another home, but then the Lake County Board of Commissioners vetoed it.

“There’s a lot of confusion in this. There’s confusion that came out of what the council passed,” Lee said.

Lee said he agrees that more people are moving into the area, which has caused tension between neighbors who want to shoot on their property and neighbors that “don’t like the noise.” That’s why Lee said he takes issue with the open land in South County bei ng devel oped i nt o homes and subdivisions.

“It’s just going to change how the county operates,” Lee said.

Ultimately, the council decided to get more information from the Lake County Sheriff ’s Department and Lake County Prosecutor’s Office on how to move forward with criminal charges against a resident that is found to be shooting in a reckless manner, said council attorney Ray Szarmach.

Council President Ted Bilski, D-Hobart, said that regardless of what current county ordinances state or what future ordinances state, reckless discharge of a weapon is illegal under state law.

“If someone is shooting at trees, building structures, regardless of where the property line is, where this ordinance is, the law says its illegal. If you’re having those types of issues, I would please encourage you to contact the sheriff ’s department,” Bilski said.

Slivka said that neighbors in her neighborhood frequently call the sheriff ’s department, but the shooting continues.

Lake County Sheriff ’s Department Chief of Police Vince Balbo said, “this is not a new issue” and calls have increased over the years as more people move into the area.

“You’re shooting in areas that previously have been completely non-populated. They’re now populated,” Balbo said.

While sheriff ’s officers respond to calls, Balbo said, the ordinance is hard to enforce because it is “vague.” The prosecutor’s office decides if someone is shooting“recklessly ,” Balbo said.

“If I have a home and somebody is shooting at a pile of dirt, there’s no specific regulation what the crime should be,” Balbo said.

Szarmach told Balbo the ordinance isn’t vague. The ordinance outlines regulations for shooting ranges on a residential property, but it doesn’t address someone shooting recklessly, Szarmach said.

Balbo said that when call comes in about a homeowner shooting on their property, officers respond, make a report, conduct an investigation “and that information is provided to the Lake County Prosecutor to determine if there is a criminal violation.”

It’s an officer’s discretion whether to file charging documents with the prosecutor’s office or a violation of town ordinance with the town attorney, said spokesman Brad Carter. If the officer moves forward with an ordinance violation, typically the resident pays a fine, Carter said. If charging documents are filed, the person involved could be charged with a crime, he said.

Carter said that someone shooting a gun “within the town limits of Cedar Lake” could be charged with criminal recklessness if he or she “uses a deadly weapon and who recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally performs an act that creates a substantial risk of bodily injury to another person.”

Most cases don’t fall under the criminal recklessness statute, but rather the ordinance violation, Carter said. From January 2019 to December 2020, only four cases of criminal recklessness involving a firearm were filed with the prosecutor’s office from the Cedar Lake Police Department, he said.

Plan Commission Director Ned Kovachevich said the commission is in the process of rewriting zoning codes and that “maybe (the commission) could take a look at regulating shooting in subdivision of a certain density.”