City revising firearms ordinance

SANDPOINT — The city will rechamber its gun ordinance in the next few weeks, making it more toy friendly.

Sandpoint resident Robert Harrison asked the city and its police department to take another look at the city firearms ordinance because it does not specify if paintball or air guns are illegal.

Harrison said the question arose when his 14-year-old son, who was playing with an air gun in his yard, was told by a passerby that under city law the toy was illegal.

At this week’s administrative meeting, Harrison asked city officials if children’s toys fall under the ordinance.

He asked for an amendment because the current wording is too broad.

“I asked for more specificity,” Harrison, a local dentist said. “There is a whole lot of difference between a hunting rifle, and a kid gun they sell at Big 5.”

Before attending this week’s administrative meeting, Harrison and his son sat at the family’s kitchen table and wrote an amendment of their own that uses a projectile’s speed to determine a gun’s danger to others, and whether it should be illegal.

“We had kind of a bare bones wording that we came up with,” Harrison said. “All we wanted to accomplish was for them to look at it, and they did.”

Sandpoint Police Chief Mark Lockwood said he will work with council members to tweak the ordinance, but he will not likely use bullet velocities in an amended version.

“We just need to look at it more in depth,” Lockwood said. “We don’t want it to be so complicated that nobody knows what going on.”

His officers have cited people under the current ordinance, which prohibits the discharge of firearms in the city, he said.

That ordinance targets guns of all varieties including paintball guns, he said.

Officers use their discretion when writing citations, he said, and the firearms ordinance is no exception.

“It depends on how they use them,” he said. “If they tag cars or pedestrians in the street, then yeah, we are going to cite them for that.”

Council member Stephen Snedden said Harrison, and his son, Rob, have a point.

“Sandpoint’s firearm law inadvertently criminalizes every 15-year-old boy with a paintball gun,” Snedden said.

The standard for a firearm is anything that shoots a harmful projectile, he said. Yet, harmful isn’t defined.

“I moved to clarify the definition of harmful so that it doesn’t criminalize a boy or girl using a toy gun or paintball gun unless that gun is being used maliciously or recklessly,” Snedden said. “In my opinion, the best laws are simple and objective.”