Suffolk allows rifles in hunts, but seeks control

SUFFOLK

The City Council learned Wednesday that it's only halfway toward controlling where people can hunt deer and bear with rifles.

The effort centers on a couple of quirky state regulations that made for an odd hunting boundary. In the western, more-rural half of the city, deer and bear hunting with rifles was prohibited. But it's legal in the eastern and fast-growing northern reaches, so long as a 15-foot stand is used and other restrictions are met.

In June, the state Board of Game and Inland Fisheries approved Suffolk's request to be removed from a list of two cities and five counties where the use of rifles was not allowed in deer and bear hunts. It's unclear why the list included Suffolk, or why it exists at all, said Capt. Michael Minarik, the area's law enforcement manager for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

A second state provision expressly allows hunting with rifles across the so-called "Dismal Swamp Line," which covers much of the city's booming growth areas. The city tried to get the Game and Inland Fisheries board to let Suffolk out of that regulation as well, but the board did not consider the request, Deputy City Manager Patrick Roberts told the City Council in a report on the board's actions. The city plans to seek the release from that requirement again next year.

Council members expressed concern that the city must still allow hunting in some of its more developed areas.

Roberts cautioned that hunters anywhere in the city must still abide by prohibitions against discharging a firearm in densely populated areas and within 100 yards from public streets, businesses and homes.

However, he added, "the perception that rifles would be allowed in the part of the city that has seen the most development in the last 30 years is somewhat counterintuitive."

Roberts plans to return to the council with an ordinance that would continue the restrictions on rifles in the western half of the city through this fall. That will give city staff time to review the regulations and create a more uniform approach next year.