Dorchester County hunting ordinance USA
May 24th, 2005 by Administrator
Dorchester County hunting ordinance won’t be pursued The Associated Press
Dorchester County likely won’t pursue a plan to make it illegal for hunters to shoot near houses because only the state can regulate hunters. But Mike Murphree, chairman of the County Council’s safety committee, said the county will seek other ways to deal with the problem.
State law allows hunting from roads with permission of the adjacent landowner and only
adjacent landowner and only the state can regulate hunters, Department of Natural Resources attorney Jim Quinn told the committee Monday.
Murphree said a proposed county ordinance making it illegal to shoot a gun within 500 feet of a road probably won’t move forward.
“I’d be the first to say there are problems with road hunting in South Carolina,” Quinn told the committee. But he said the solution will have to come from the state, not local governments.
Murphree will ask the council next month to allow the committee to continue studying the problem and said he wants to talk to members of the county legislative delegation about state laws.
Residents of two subdivisions in the county have complained about hunters in nearby woods. The subdivisions were built on timberlands that have been leased to hunters for years.
While Quinn said state law already outlaws hunting near schools, Councilman Larry Hargett said the law outlaws hunting near houses but says nothing about schools. Whether the law applies to areas near schools is something the safety committee wants to study, Murphree said.
About 100 hunters and landowners attended a public hearing last month and said the proposed ordinance would eliminate hunting in rural areas. Some hunters said the county should regulate hunting near subdivisions but not in the rural areas.
But Quinn said Monday that state law would not allow that.
Information from: The Post and Courier,