This is very long but bear with me...
My wife and I went to visit my family who live by lake Conway in Arkansas. They've always shot guns out there and the neighbors usually encourage it cuz it scares off certain animals they don't want around. No problems in the past or even the day before when we were shooting not only pistols but a 12 ga. The neighbors were even standing around watching us and shooting the breeze. The next morning my cousin and I were shooting my little 9mm pistol at a log out on the lake, we're being safe, watching our background for fishing boats,etc. we're in my familys yard. This old man comes to the gate up by the road of the adjoining property and starts yelling at us that "this ain't a gun range", "there's houses around here" and proceeds to tell me he's called the sheriff's dept. and such. I yell back (he's maybe 75 yds. away), "We're on my family's land and it's not illegal to shoot here". He can't hear us and keeps shouting "what?" So I figure I'll go hop the fence and go talk to the guy face to face to see what his problem is. I put my guns down and walk that way, now he begins to cuss us out and telling us he's pressing charges so I turn around and figure it's best to just pack up and head inside because I don't want to cause any problems for my family or my little cousin getting hurt. As I'm packing up my stuff he's getting bolder and now starts making threats, "I'll go get my guns and run your asses off." I yell back, "Sorry to disturb you, we're done, we're leaving" and he keeps shouting, "WHAT?" WHAT?". As we're walking back to the house he's still cussing, making threats to run us off and what have you. Anyway, it really cheesed me off. My family knows most everyone around there but no one knew who this guy was. Obviously, the deputies never showed up because we weren't doing anything wrong. I was in a bad mood for the rest of the day and even thought about driving up the road to see if I could find the guy and have a chat with him about making threats. Common sense won out and I didn't do that, but we go maybe twice a year and shoot every time. What would you recommend I do if this jerk comes around again the next time we're out there. Should I have hopped the fence and talked to the guy face to face anyway? Should I have called the sheriff myself? Was it best for me to just walk away when I was well within my rights on family property?
My wife and I went to visit my family who live by lake Conway in Arkansas. They've always shot guns out there and the neighbors usually encourage it cuz it scares off certain animals they don't want around. No problems in the past or even the day before when we were shooting not only pistols but a 12 ga. The neighbors were even standing around watching us and shooting the breeze. The next morning my cousin and I were shooting my little 9mm pistol at a log out on the lake, we're being safe, watching our background for fishing boats,etc. we're in my familys yard. This old man comes to the gate up by the road of the adjoining property and starts yelling at us that "this ain't a gun range", "there's houses around here" and proceeds to tell me he's called the sheriff's dept. and such. I yell back (he's maybe 75 yds. away), "We're on my family's land and it's not illegal to shoot here". He can't hear us and keeps shouting "what?" So I figure I'll go hop the fence and go talk to the guy face to face to see what his problem is. I put my guns down and walk that way, now he begins to cuss us out and telling us he's pressing charges so I turn around and figure it's best to just pack up and head inside because I don't want to cause any problems for my family or my little cousin getting hurt. As I'm packing up my stuff he's getting bolder and now starts making threats, "I'll go get my guns and run your asses off." I yell back, "Sorry to disturb you, we're done, we're leaving" and he keeps shouting, "WHAT?" WHAT?". As we're walking back to the house he's still cussing, making threats to run us off and what have you. Anyway, it really cheesed me off. My family knows most everyone around there but no one knew who this guy was. Obviously, the deputies never showed up because we weren't doing anything wrong. I was in a bad mood for the rest of the day and even thought about driving up the road to see if I could find the guy and have a chat with him about making threats. Common sense won out and I didn't do that, but we go maybe twice a year and shoot every time. What would you recommend I do if this jerk comes around again the next time we're out there. Should I have hopped the fence and talked to the guy face to face anyway? Should I have called the sheriff myself? Was it best for me to just walk away when I was well within my rights on family property?
