Two bullets that struck a home in the retirement community of Colonial Heritage last month have triggered a debate on the nature of gun and property rights in James City County.
Both property and gun rights are enshrined in the nation’s constitution, as well as county code, but if the county wanted to stop frequent gunfire near the housing development, it would have to change the nature of both rights entirely.
“The problem here is that basically you’ve got a residential development butting up against agricultural land,” James City County Supervisor John McGlennon said. “When you’ve got this lack of transitional area between the two uses, you’re in for some conflict. Especially when you’re dealing with somebody that, I guess, is a little irresponsible with his firearms.”
The issue came to a head on April 20 when Charles Wittges, a homeowner in Colonial Heritage, called police to report that two bullets had struck his home. Representatives for Colonial Heritage did not respond to requests for comment for this article.
“To me there’s no difference between a bullet hitting my house or hitting someone in the head,” Wittges said. “It was a matter of a few inches to the left it would have hit our headboard.”
Wittges, a 28-year veteran of the Army, said the random gunfire came to irritate him, but he had justified it as “the sound of freedom” he fought for during his four tours in Iraq — that is, until two bullets hit his home.
“This is a very typical escalation,” Wittges said before calling the technicality allowing the gunfire to continue a shame. That technicality is a part of county code which calls for fewer firearm regulations on family subdivisions, such as the 21-acre plot where the gunfire is said to have originated.
The land is owned by Otto Ripley, but according to letters sent by area residents to Stonehouse district Supervisor Sue Sadler, Otto Ripley’s grandson Aaron Ripley is said to occupy the land.
Aaron Ripley said in a Facebook message that he works hard and likes to “relax” by shooting his firearms within a “legal boundary.” He added he believes he has been falsely accused of the incident at the Wittges home.
The land Aaron Ripley occupies is zoned for agricultural or forestry purposes, but according to County Attorney Adam Kinsman that zoning doesn’t change Aaron Ripley’s right to shoot firearms on the property.
“The Board is permitted to determine what areas of the County are so densely populated as to not permit shooting,” Kinsman said in an email. He added that a previous board had changed the county code to create a loophole allowing gunfire on any property in the county.
The loophole allows for shooting on any private property in a “basement, cellar, or target range,” the code says.
To make the gunfire near Colonial Heritage stop, the loophole would need to be closed — something within the county’s legal rights given by the state, according to Kinsman.
But if the loophole is closed, it could diminish property owner’s right to shoot in backyard target ranges. And furthermore the county can’t target any family subdivision such as the Ripley property to restrict the use of firearms, because the county would have to change the code for all family subdivisions to do so.
The change would have unknown implications across the county, Kinsman said.
Supervisor McGlennon likened the potential change to using heavy artillery to kill a bug.
“The county’s not without the power, it’s just that it’s a bit like taking a howitzer to a fly,” McGlennon said.
WYDaily archives were used in this story.
