Quote:
Councillor Mike Schenk said, “The OPP has said that since there is no bylaw in place for the whole Township of Richmond, and even though you are in a built-up area, it is hard to press charges.”
Napanee staff presented a first draft of the bylaw, which had some exceptions and restrictions. They were told by the Police Services Board to bring back something more simplistic. Police said a bylaw with specific areas and restrictions would be almost impossible to enforce.
This comment actually touches on something workable for these large amalgamated townships. Instead of an all encompassing restrictive by-law, let the criminal code handle it as a case by case basis.
Quote:
Chief Administrative Officer, Ray Callery, answered saying, “Careless use (of a firearm) is a criminal code offense … The difficulty is many complaints are noise-based complaints…which makes it very difficult for the police to enforce.”
Back when the City of Ottawa amalgamated, it stretched it's city limits all the way down to the Rideau River to the south encompassing a huge area of farm land etc. The resulting Firearm dis-charge by-law (see link) is a convoluted mess of charts and maps with shaded areas etc. 
