Several days ago an e-mail alert hit my in-box... "Gun Rights Under Attack In Bartow County". As a gun owner and strident protector of the Second Amendment I immediately opened the e-mail, although I was puzzled because NW Georgia is gun country and no politician around here would dare cross gun owners. Well, it turns out the e-mail had nothing to do with gun rights and everything to do with private property rights, and I found myself on the other side of the issue opposing these upset gun owners.

Most folks around here come from the school of thought that says, "I don't care what you do with your property as long as you don't infringe on my right to use and enjoy my own property". It's that gray area where the rights of one party infringe upon another party that causes things to get complicated.

Now if your neighbor were releasing toxic gases into the air on his land, the government would shut him down because that air doesn't stay over his land... it blows onto other people's property. Likewise if he were dumping hazardous waste onto his land, he would be stopped because he would be polluting surface water and ground water... killing wildlife and possibly contaminating his neighbors' wells.

Now the subject of the e-mail I received involved a different type of pollution... noise pollution being generated from a firing range... and make no mistake it is pollution... negatively impacting people's health and keeping them from enjoying their own homes and property.

While Bartow County has been very progressive over the years and ahead of many neighboring counties in terms of land use planning, the county is way behind the times when it comes to dealing with noise pollution. I've been on the receiving end of noise problems and our hands were virtually tied other than filing lawsuits against the other party because Bartow County has nothing substantial on the books concerning noise and nuisance issues.

A revision to Bartow County's zoning and land use laws is being considered that would place additional restrictions on firing ranges. The proposed changes are reasonable and would help protect neighboring homeowners from the noise and from possible stray bullets.

Unfortunately the proposed changes as written would also force two local firing range owners to shut down. Both of these men have significant investments in their businesses and those rights should also be protected if possible.

While the planning commission voted against the new proposal, County Commissioner Clarence Brown has postponed making a decision until his next meeting. There is a solution I hope Commissioner Brown will consider...

Approve the proposed restrictions so that new firing ranges being built in Bartow County would have to adhere to the new law, and then exempt the existing gun ranges from some aspects, such as the minimum land requirements, on the condition that they agree to some reasonable restrictions, such as adopting the limited hours of operation included in the new proposal.

Commissioner Brown also needs to take this a step further and put together an advisory panel to investigate other metro Atlanta noise ordinances. Then craft a countywide statute that will give citizens something to stand on when they face unreasonable noise problems.

Like it or not, Bartow County is now part of metro Atlanta and subdivisions and nice homes are located side by side with farms and open land. I hope Commissioner Brown has sympathy for the young mother who finally gets her baby to sleep only to have it awakened by that loud car stereo passing by or by that kid on the loud dirt bike riding next door. And I hope he considers that exhausted third shift worker unable to sleep in the daytime because a neighbor decides to shoot skeet in his pasture.

They say a man's home is his castle, but right now in Bartow County that's not the case. Times have changed and Bartow County's ordinances must change as well.

That's my opinion, we welcome yours... Thanks for listening and I'll see you next Monday... for a complete transcript of this morning's comments, go to NewsTalk1270.com (End of complete transcript of commentary that aired on NewsTalk AM 1270 - WYXC at 7:35 AM Monday, June 8, 2009)