Sarah Brady and Joan Peterson think the folks that live on West Crooked Lake are entitled to peace and quiet from duck hunters, who supposedly are newly enabled to blast away at ducks during season, thanks to the state giving teeth to preemption. I haven’t looked into Florida law yet to see whether this is the case, but in most cases, in many states including Pennsylvania, local communities have been preempted from interfering with lawful hunting for some time.
I have to say, I’m sympathetic to the residents. I’d be really peeved if I was awoken from sleep by the sound of shotgun blasts, and quick look over the lake shows it to be a pretty heavily residential area. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. But for all I know hunting has gone on here for a long time, and these folks have just found a new vehicle by which to complain about it. You never really can expect to be told the full truth by the media with these local issues. Nonetheless, I’m sympathetic to the residents.
But you know what would fix this problem? Legalizing suppressors. I suspect Sarah Brady and Japete aren’t going to go for that one. That would take care of the noise problem, and the lake is certainly big enough to safely hunt on provided all the standard precautions are taken. Bird shot doesn’t stay lethal for all that great a distance, despite the woman in the article worried about “someone’s child accidentally catch[ing] a stray bullet.” You don’t hunt ducks with bullets lady, you hunt them with shot.