One of my dreams–one I suspect most avid gun owners share–is to have a patch of land large enough for me to have a range in my back yard. To me, that’s living the dream, right there, especially since I can do things in my yard for training purposes that some ranges tend to frown on, such as drawing and firing or moving while shooting.

A lot of people are already living this dream.

In one Indiana county, however, that dream is in jeopardy thanks to a county council and some busybody neighbors.

The Lake County Council widened its prohibition on gunfire in residential south Lake County Tuesday over the protests of gun owners.

The council voted 5-2 to amended its ban on the discharge of firearms near neighboring homes, enlarging the exclusion zone from 300 feet to 700 feet in unincorporated county areas.

…

The council softened the restriction with two exceptions: the exclusion zone wouldn’t apply to hunters during hunting season and it wouldn’t apply if gun owners get signed permission from their adjacent neighbors to discharge weapons at a closer distance.

An overflow crowd of more than 150 called out their opposition to tighter restrictions during the debate and booed loudly following the first of several votes to pass the ordinance into the law books. “They passed it. We got screwed,” one man shouted from a nearby hallway.

Sheriff’s deputies were on hand in case things got rowdy, but gun rights advocates tend to be loud but generally harmless folks. They’re willing to get rowdy, but that isn’t plan “A” for most of them.

The rule will now go to the Lake County Board of Commissioners for their approval. If that passes, then it’ll be the law.

However, there was a comment made by a proponent of the proposed restriction that bothered me.

Jorgensen, who supported the restrictions, said it was needed to curb irresponsible shooting by encouraging gun owners to be on good terms with their neighbors.

“It’s a neighbor issue in an increasingly populated area. We had complaints about people not being good neighbors. I want to leave this question in the hands of the people to reach a compromise and be good neighbors.

Wait, what?

Look, I keep to myself. I don’t interact with my neighbors all that much because I’m an introvert and I don’t generally like talking to people I don’t know, which makes making new friends difficult.

I’m far from alone in this.

But Jorgensen is ready to punish anyone who is like me.

Not just that, but this smacks of someone wanting his neighbors to bend over and kiss their hind-quarters. That’s what this is going to lead to, after all. “Oh, you want to shoot on your property? Nah. You snubbed me at the church potluck, and I took it personally, so no. You can’t.”

Yes, some people do define “being a good neighbor” with “doing things to please me.”

If this was a safety issue, that’s one thing, but there are already rules in place dealing with unsafe handling of weapons in the area. This is more about people not liking what their neighbors do on their property and wanting to stop it.