I live in a rural area; the responses from the Sheriff's Department over time is telling
In the 24 years that I have lived and farmed in a rural Northern CA County on three occasions I have called the Sheriff’s Department about bullets coming onto my property. In 2005 or so it was someone shooting squirrels on a road a quarter of a mile away, but some kind of a weird hillside dynamic seems to have allowed the bullets to come up and into my pole barn where the man who worked for me then and I were standing. Very scary to have bullets whiz by us. But the Sheriff was able to go find the squirrel hunter and get them to stop. No problem, all were polite and professional and I was grateful.
Next time was around 2012 when my former neighbor had died and his methamphetamine addicted felon son was hallucinating "that bad guys were coming to get him”. He was standing at the top of a hill shooting high powered rifles down the 1/2 mile gravel road all the way to the highway. Neighbors that I called blocked the entrance to the road from the highway to prevent someone accidentally driving up it and getting shot. The Sheriff's Department had to send a swat team out, which took over an hour to assemble. That was a nightmare. Again, professionally handled and taken care of.
But just this last month, when bullets almost hit another worker near my barn, when I called the response was completely different. I was told that the people a quarter of a mile away who claimed to be shooting squirrels were allowed to shoot squirrels on their own property. And that unless someone was shot, or my car or house windows were shot out, to leave the Sheriff's Department alone and to stop bothering them! I was to stop bothering the Sheriff's Department unless someone had been shot or property damage had occurred.
What does this suggest? That there are so many shootings that they cannot be bothered with dealing with accidental stray shootings? That they have so many actual mortalities that just bullets whizzing by is not something that they have the time to address?
The people who were doing the squirrel shooting post lots of MTG stuff on their business website and just moved in a few years ago. Many neighbors call and complain to the Sheriff's Department about them. Is this because they (the Sheriff's Department) are sympathetic to these people and I just got lumped in with the other callers in the area, who have called for their own other reasons?
Who knows, but I would agree that the whole gun thing is so out of control, even here in California. A state with much stricter rules and regulations about firearms.
Not one of the reported shootings as of late surprises me at all. All one has to do is listen to the crazed AM radio guys or Faux news and the paranoia is just out of the ballpark.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I know I didn't just read that someone should get a gun, and shoot in the direction of someone else. 
Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of Ida B. Wells, and have posted her quote more times than I can recall at this moment.
" Of the many inhuman outrages of this present year, the only case where the proposed lynching did not occur, was where the men armed themselves in Jacksonville, Fla., and Paducah, Ky, and prevented it. The only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense.
The lesson this teaches and which every Afro-American should ponder well, is that a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give. When the white man who is always the aggressor knows he runs as great risk of biting the dust every time his Afro-American victim does, he will have greater respect for Afro-American life. The more the Afro-American yields and cringes and begs, the more he has to do so, the more he is insulted, outraged and lynched." https://brian.carnell.com/articles/2017/ida-b-wells-on-gun-ownership/
I've always found it interesting that she specifically mentioned the Winchester rifle, which in the time of her quote, would have been a weapon of war, a military grade weapon. Pretty sure it was the same rifle Captain Nathan Algren was hawking in the beginning of The Last Samurai. But, I digress.....
The part of her quote... " and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give." doesn't seem to fit in this situation. Or at least, there are too many questions raised to say it in fact, does.
Clearly a deputy went out there, unless the dispatcher is clairvoyant, and knew what reason the shooter would claim. I am sure the shooter denied aiming at others property, and it becomes a he said/he said. Should the department put someone out on stake out? Maybe set up a chronograph to detect any high velocity objects flying through the air? With out physical evidence, a broken window, a slug in a car or house siding, a bleeding person, there is nothing to act on.
That being said..... maybe, if it is wrong for squirrel hunter to shoot indiscriminately, it is just as wrong for home owner to "stand on your own property and shoot in the direction of the squirrel hunter." But, I'm new here, still learning the rules governing firearms in good ol DU:GD. 
‘all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’.
Is that a good squirrel with a gun?
Or a bad squirrel with a gun?
?FunnyWarAnimalSqu11
Last edited Thu Apr 20, 2023, 11:43 PM - Edit history (1)
talking about. Great examples, and clear plea for a better understanding of the issue. 
I don't know how far you are from the closest police station, but I would file a report with each incident if you can. That way you start building a well documented case. It's a lot harder for the cops to just blow you off when you're right in front of them demanding to file a report. You want it well documented that these bullets are coming from another property in case someone does get killed or injured. You need to protect yourself from the worst outcome. If you can take a witness with you to file that report, all the better. Once the incident is in an official report that changes everything. Good luck!
Using words doesn't work on them. The only thing that will correct them is an overwhelming response, ten bullets for every one they fire. A perforated home is the only message their animal brains understand. It's so cute you think you can deal with these creatures like they're human
other people think they are.
You do you, Boo. Stack up and teach them 'animals' a lesson. Let us know how it works out for you. 
