(Why do I feel like shit like this doesn't happen in civilized, non-Glenn-Beckian countries, because they actually have sane gun laws?)
So I'm all happy and exhausted from a week at Burning Man, and still on the playa in the middle of the Nevada desert in my little rig. Thanks to the technical genius of resident Burner hacktivists, we can pick up email, and tonight before sacking out, I noticed a rare frantic note from my sweetie in my inbox (sweetie isn't really an emailer). My partner is apparently nursing a badly hurt neck and leg, following an incident in which our neighbors had been shooting their guns way too near. Again. Now my desert high from the Burn is gone and I am pissed.
What I'm wondering is what can be done about these yahoos, if anything.
Here's the tale, in short. My family has been living on the same ag land just outside of a small town for 45 years. I mean, before there was anything else in that part of the sticks, my family was there. These days, it's full of rural housing developments. Immediately behind us is a big orchard, a mile square, put in about 20 years ago, with lots of us smaller property owners like ourselves backing up to that orchard. Orchard owners are very nice about letting us neighbors walk our dogs in and around the orchard, as long as no dangerous work is being done inside the orchard. (Maybe they're nice because we don't complain about the HUGE amounts of choking pesticide that drifts into our yards and onto our chickens and gardens during spray seasons). Anyway, we've been walking the dogs for decades in the orchard without incident.
Recently, yahoos moved onto an acre bordering the orchard on the right side, about a half-mile away. They apparently enjoy killing things. A LOT. These days, we're finding poisoned coyotes, poisoned racoons, poisoned gophers, poisoned rabbits, poisoned skunks, poisoned oppossums, dead owls, dead hawks, dead quail, dead magpies, dead wild turkeys, and dead cats. All in the big orchard (except for some hanged crows, which swing from trees on the border of yahoos' property). We can't prove the killing-fields is the work of the yahoos, but it only started happening since they moved in, and orchard workers say they are annoyed, because the coyotes, owls and hawks keep the squirrel population down, which helps protect the crop.
Anyway, lately, said yahoos have taken to firing off guns, particularly when people walk by on the little private dirt road (NOT yahoo property) between themselves and the big orchard owners. Of course, this scares the living shit out of both dogwalkers and dogs alike. We'd avoid walking the dogs when we hear them shooting, but they only start shooting RIGHT when we walk by, so we've started to suspect it's done for intimidation. Which is especially bothersome, since we've been walking our dogs there forever. A few weeks ago, one of our dogs heard the shots and broke right off her leash, and we were absolutely terrified we'd never see her again, because of course we heard them keep shooting and shooting as she bolted past their place.
So, tonight before sunset, Dear Partner noticed the orchard was soaked from being watered, and so took the leashed dogs down the dry border road. As feared, yahoos started shooting. RIGHT when partner and dogs went by. Partner wasn't sure whether or not the dogs were the target, but it sure seemed that way. Dogs of course panicked and bolted on their leashes, which put my partner face-down into the dirt, and hurt. Partner hollered at the yahoos to stop shooting, and they came up, brandishing their shotguns, claiming that partner was trespassing on their property (patently false), and that they had every right to shoot "at rabbits" on ag land. Now, yahoos only have about an acre--not a whole lot of rabbits or anything else just wandering through. At best, they are shooting FROM their property, but INTO property that isn't theirs (it's not ours either), with no backdrop or concern for the proximity of people or domestic pets. What was really horrible was that partner had to crawl home in the dark, injured from the fall, because the alternative was asking these shotgun-toting hostiles for help.
So now I am furious. Good thing I'm a few hundred miles away, or I'd probably get us into a Hatfield and McCoy situation with these guys. I own guns too--a fat antique collection, in fact--I just don't shoot them anyplace there might be people or domestic animals around to get hurt or scared.
Amazingly, in this gun-obsessed culture, I can't find ANYthing online about gun laws and shooting on private property in our county. It seems like shooting into other peoples' property or when people are around should be an automatic no-no. Anyone familiar with basic shooting laws?
Thanks, night owls.