More Land Designated ‘No Shooting’

Spokane County commissioners added another hunk of North Side land to the county’s “no shooting” area Tuesday night.

The newly designated land is bordered by Woolard Road on the north and Colbert Road on the south and extends about a half mile west of U.S. Highway 2.

It is now illegal to discharge firearms, pellet guns, BB guns, bows and arrows and crossbows in the area.

Ten of the 20 landowners in the neighborhood had petitioned commissioners to include their community in the county’s “no shooting” area.

Maxine Douglass was one of them. Douglass told commissioners at a public hearing that the area is plagued by gunfire during parts of the year, especially around hunting season.

“It’s a hazard,” she said. “Kids are riding their motorcycles back there, riding their bikes. From a safety standpoint, it would behoove the county to do this.”

But a neighbor who attended Tuesday’s meeting said he didn’t want the restrictions.

“It takes away one of our rights,” Jim Wilson said. “I do want the right to take a potshot at a coyote if he comes on my land and gets after one of my animals.”

Commissioners Steve Hasson and Phil Harris sided with Douglass.

Harris said the restriction didn’t take away anyone’s right to bear arms and provided needed protection in an area that’s fast becoming urbanized.

“It’s just scary when you get subdivisions nearby,” the commissioner said.