Talks about shooting ordinance gain traction

By Miles Smith
LPR Editor

It happened in the 1970s, but Caldwell County Pct. 2 Constable Thomas Will still gets choked up when he talks about an incident that occurred when he was a deputy in Harris County.
“There was a shooter in the woods, and a little girl sitting on her front porch,” Will recalled tearfully Monday during Caldwell County Commissioners Court. “A bullet hit that little girl in the jaw. It blew her jaw right off of her. She had to live her life like that, and probably has to live with it to this day.”
That shooting happened on a weekend, and Will said Harris County passed an ordinance restricting gun usage the following week when its commissioners court convened. Will is a proponent of tightening shooting laws in subdivisions in unincorporated areas of the county. State guidelines allow counties to restrict how firearms are used on properties under 10 acres in those areas.
While people can currently be prosecuted for deadly conduct, there are few laws that restrict behavior that Will and a number of Caldwell County citizens say have led to livestock and property being damaged and destroyed.
That, Will says, makes it tough to enforce the law proactively. He said he works day and night out in his precinct trying to catch the shooters, but hasn’t had any luck
“People don’t have any common sense,” he said. “People move out here and want to shoot guns, but they don’t have the proper training. All they know to do is pull the trigger.”
Will said he would also support restrictions on the types of weapons that would be allowed for home and property defense against pests like snakes and hogs.
“Shotguns. A .410 is good enough for shooting snakes and hogs,” Will said of the firearm, which doesn’t have the range of rifles and pistols.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the Post-Register.