Journal Title
Gonzaga Law Reivew
Volume
59
Issue
1
First Page
1
Document Type
Article
Publication Information
2023
Abstract
People exhausted by the increasingly fast-paced life and loud noises of the big city will often seek refuge in the solitude of quiet country living. Perhaps naive, the romantic thought of waking to the scenic views of an early morning sunrise burning an orange hue across the pasture or the sweet sounds of a Bachman's sparrow singing from the birdhouse placed neatly within view of the kitchen window is abruptly squashed when rural landowners fall victim to the excessively loud sport of outdoor firearm shooting.
Protecting rural landowners' rights to the quiet use and enjoyment of their property has been a bedrock of American jurisprudence for more than two hundred years. State legislatures, however, saw fit to erode this once revered protection by seemingly favoring the advancement of corporate enterprise and urban growth through the passage of immunity laws that provide gun range owners with legal protection against noise abatement claims, thereby leaving landowners desperate for relief from the unwavering sounds of war that such gun ranges produce. Viewed positively, immunity statutes make excessive noise from a gun range a legalized nuisance. Viewed critically, immunity statutes result in the state sponsoring of non-governmental actors freely wielding unconstitutional private takings against rural landowners.
This Article discusses issues faced by rural landowners, described herein as "disregarded victims," who were living in their homes or operating a business prior to a gun range establishing a nearby operation. This Article specifically argues for legislative reform to curtail the immunity so generously afforded to gun range operators and to provide a justiciable pathway for existing rural landowners to seek noise abatement relief through private claims.
Recommended Citation
Match Dawson, Gun Range Immunity: An Argument against Legalized Nuisance and Non-Governmental Takings, 59 Gonz. L. Rev. 1 (2023).