Warren County has a new law governing the discharge of firearms.

The Board of Supervisors Monday passed unanimously an ordinance that sets fines for discharging a gun in platted subdivisions outside the city limits.

The ordinance, which goes into effect immediately upon its passing, makes it punishable with a fine up to $1,000 and/or 10 days in jail for someone to discharge a firearm within a platted subdivision in “a manner reasonably expected to cause any projectile from such firearm or weapon to travel across any property line without the permission of the property owner.”

“This ordinance will give them the authority to in fact deal with those who wish to put others in possible harm,” board president Richard George said. “That is why, as a result of complaints, but not very many across the county, it is time to deal with enforcement before it grows into a larger problem.”

A platted subdivision is defined as “a recorded subdivision by a developer,” board attorney Blake Teller said. 

“Although the city of Vicksburg has an ordinance where you can’t discharge a firearm within the city limits, once you are outside the city limits up until now whether you were in a subdivision or in the middle of 100 acres there was no difference,” Warren County sheriff Martin Pace said.  “Outside the city limits is outside the city limits.”

The process that led to the passage of the ordinance was led in part by Freddie Mitchell, a concerned citizen who voiced her concerns to the board following an incident on the Fourth of July. Mitchell, who lives on Washington Circle off Gibson Street, said her neighbors began shooting firearms on the evening of the Fourth around 8:30 p.m. endangering members of her family.

“One of the bullets hit and went through my son’s SUV,” Mitchell said. “It could have killed my grandson and daughter-in-law. I have called several times about them shooting. The deputy sheriff will come out and they will patrol the area. After they (the deputies) leave, they will start shooting again like they are Rambo or somebody.”

Before the passage of the ordinance, deputies had no recourse to punish those who were firing guns in neighborhoods as long as they were outside the city limits.

“The state of Mississippi has a statute that tells the counties they can do an ordinance of this nature related to platted subdivisions,” Teller said. “That is where this came from. We didn’t have one before and this problem arose and we realized there were no teeth to doing something.”

The ordinance does allow for the discharge of firearms by law enforcement in the line of duty and by a person using a firearm “in the proper manner authorized by law in defense of home or life.”

The ordinance also makes clear that it does not in anyway prohibit a citizen’s right to own or bear arms as allowed under Mississippi state law.