Archive: News

When you buy a house near the airport and later complain about the noise of jetliners overhead it is hard to find a sympathetic ear, because you surely knew that planes would be flying overhead when you bought the place.  But when it is a matter of bullets flying onto your property it becomes more complicated.  That is the situation residents of Muirfield Drive in the Town of Lansing now face as they attempt to deal with an incident in October when a bullet rammed into Dr. Amit Shrivastava's window, shattering the glass. 

"I told my family to duck as I was running out," Shrivastava told the Town Board in their December 19 meeting.  "There is an extensive corn field in the back and I thought maybe it was a hunter shooting.  So I ran out yelling, 'Please stop!' -- but nobody was there.  I searched the area behind my property, the corn field.  And the shooting continued for a few more minutes from the gun club."

Muirfield Drive is located across a corn field from the Tompkins County Fish and Game Club.  The not-for-profit club has been located there for well over 50 years, long before development found its way into the area off of East Shore Drive near Waterwagon Road.  The club, which currently has 10 to 15 members, is open to the club members, but the public can shoot on on Wednesday evenings in the summertime, and on Sundays in the wintertime.  Long time member David Banfield, who also lives near the club property, says that over the years the club has evolved into a trap and skeet club.  Banfield has been a member for close to 50 years, but is less active now because his interests tend toward bow hunting. 


When Shrivastava asked the Town Board for help then Town Supervisor Steve Farkas turned the incident report over to Town Attorney Guy Krogh to follow up with the Sheriff's office.  "The issue is that the fish and game club has been there for many, many years," Farkas said.  "They are there as an 'existing use' and they are grandfathered in.  If that is where that bullet came from they may need to put more precautions in place.  They're going to have to do more to protect the neighborhood, because they do have that standing permission to use that land for that purpose."

But before the Board can suggest that to the club they want to know that it was where the bullet actually came from.  "We don't have any confirmation on where the bullet actually came from at this point," said current Town Supervisor Scott Pinney in last Wednesday's board meeting, when Shrivastava returned with neighbors Beth McKinney, John and Suzanne Hausanecht, and Bernie Ryan.

In December Farkas raised the question of whether the gun club is in the Village of Lansing or the Town.  That raised a point of confusion that was not entirely cleared up a month later.  Village of Lansing Mayor Don Hartill says that the club's long entry driveway is in the Village, but the club grounds proper are in the town.  He pointed to a zoning map that showed the boundaries to illustrate the point, noting that the Village has an ordinance against discharging weapons within its boundaries.  But Town officials were still not clear on the jurisdiction issue at their meeting last Wednesday, and told Shrivastava to attend a Village Trustee meeting.

The Town Board is still following up, but with mixed results.  A letter from Town Code Enforcement Officer Dick Platt advised Shrivastava to contact a local DEC offical, but included a paragraph that added to the confusion.  "Although you did not see anyone outside near your home at the time of the accident it is the opinion of several of the people in the Code Office that the shot came from a careless hunter rather than the gun club," Platt wrote.

"A bullet crossing your property line is legally a trespass, just like a snowball or a rock," explained Krogh.  "I followed up with the Sheriff's Department and have not gotten a reply.  The obvious question is what is the guage or caliber of the projectile and did it, in fact, come from a gun of some sort.  The obvious guess would be, yes it did."

Banfield says that the shooting ranges on the property are laid out so that bullets would not be able to reach the neighboring homes.  "It's mostly shotguns," he says.  "It would be physically, and I mean physically as in physics, impossible for type of shotgun shells that they're shooting to hit a house that far away.  They don't go that far.  A shotgun is a short range weapon."

But he explained that the Fish and Game club had financial difficulties about four or five years ago.  To raise funds they rented the facility to Cornell University's athletics department to use for a 22 caliber weapon range.  Banfield says the weapon has the range of a mile, enough to reach the homes on Muirfield Drive.  Cornell built a range for the program in the woods north of the trap shooting ranges, including a 20 foot high berm.  The students shot at targets on that range from 25 yards.  "It's impossible at 25 yards to shoot over that berm," Banfield says.

But as the club facility was opened to the public non-members began using the facility.  He says he found people were shooting bottles, bowling pins and other targets, and without the instructors or club members supervising people were making a mess.  Banfield says it is possible that members of the public are shooting semi-automatic weapons at the club, and that someone shooting a nine millimeter pistol could hit a house if using the range in a way it was not intended for.

Shrivastava says that it is unlikely that the bullet came from a hunter because there was nobody in the field when he ran out to investigate.  He says gunshots continued to come from the direction of the club for several minutes after the bullet hit his home.  He reported that he did get an answer from the Sheriff's Department.  A projectile was recovered from his window sash by a local glass repair shop, and forwarded to the Tompkins County Sheriff for testing.  That report says the projectile is probably a nine millimeter bullet, but there is some doubt because of a deformity in it.

Banfield says that if the bullet was a nine millimeter, that it came from a pistol.  "If you held a nine millimeter weapon, or a 22, up in the air and discharged it, sure it would travel that far," he says, noting that if someone were just careless it is possible to shoot as far as the houses.  "And I will tell you this," he adds.  "They are not a member of the club.  Because club members know that is not the purpose of the range."

"My concern is that they're shooting high powered guns there that can go as far as our houses, said Muirfield Drive neighbor Beth McKinney last Wednesday.  "It brought up a huge concern for us that it could happen again."


While the neighbors are respectful of the fact that the club was there long before their neighborhood was built, they cite a growing concern for their safety.  "For many years I have been hearing automatic weapons," Shrivastava  says.  "Several people have witnessed that including mail deliverers who have commented on it."

"I've been living here almost 15 years," says Ryan.  "When I purchased the house it was kind of a secret why the neighbor (who sold the house to Shrivastava) moved out.  The real estate agent he bought the house from didn't tell us a thing.  But when I look at the map we are in the line of fire.  We should have had that map in front of us."

At this stage there are a number of issues that are unclear.  There is no proof that the bullet did originate at the gun club, and if it did it may be hard to track down the shooter.  And there is the point that the club was there long before developers moved into the area.

But Shrivastava and his neighbors are trying to deal with a day to day reality that this incident has spotlighted.  They do live near the club, and they are increasingly afraid that a careless bullet may hit one of them.  "My concern is that it could have been one of us," says.  "Our chests are not as stable as the window sash.  We could have been pierced through and through.  Apart from this noise pollution, now it is a matter of life and limb."

The Town Board continues to struggle with the dilemma, attempting to separate facts from guesses and assumptions, all too aware of the potentially serious consequences.  "The thing of it is that when you start getting populace into an area that has not been populated these things are going to arise," says Deputy Supervisor Connie Wilcox.  "You've got too figure out how you can protect your citizens."

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