Police urge caution with firearms on New Year’s

If you are planning to celebrate the New Year at home, police are putting out a warning to keep your guns inside, preferably.

Unless you are shooting on property within the unincorporated parts of the county and have taken steps to be sure fired bullets don’t leave your property, such as using a backstop often used for target practice, you shouldn’t be firing your gun, Sheriff Doug Cox said.

Police are well aware of the New Year’s tradition to fire guns to celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of the next. They hear the gunshots and get the reports each year.

But in most cases, firing a gun into the air isn’t legal, police said.

Residents in both Greenwood and Franklin are not allowed to shoot guns within city limits, according to city rules.

And in the unincorporated county, shooting is permitted, but it must be done with the proper safety precautions that ensure those bullets are staying on your property and aren’t endangering anyone nearby, Cox said.

“Bullets do travel,” Cox said.

“If a bullet is going up in the air, it’s going to come back down.”

Most of the time, people shooting don’t think they will hurt anyone, but if their bullet damages someone’s property or hits a person, they could face serious consequences, Cox said.

At the least, the sheriff’s office can ticket the person for an ordinance violation and they could face a fine.

But if someone damages someone’s property, they could be sued.

And if they hit a person, they could face both civil and criminal charges, Cox said.

“We just need people be careful about what they are doing,” Cox said.