O.C.G.A.
O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 41-1-9 (2019)

Sport shooting ranges

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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(a) As used in this Code section, the term:

(1) “Person” means an individual, proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or unincorporated association.

(2) “Sport shooting range” or “range” means an area designated and operated by a person for the sport shooting of firearms and not available for such use by the general public without payment of a fee, membership contribution, or dues or by invitation of an authorized person, or any area so designated and operated by a unit of government, regardless of the terms of admission thereto.

(3) “Unit of government” means any of the departments, agencies, authorities, or political subdivisions of the state, cities, municipal corporations, townships, or villages and any of their respective departments, agencies, or authorities.

(b) No sport shooting range shall be or shall become a nuisance, either public or private, solely as a result of changed conditions in or around the locality of such range if the range has been in operation for one year since the date on which it commenced operation as a sport shooting range. Subsequent physical expansion of the range or expansion of the types of firearms in use at the range shall not establish a new date of commencement of operations for purposes of this Code section.

(c) No sport shooting range or unit of government or person owning, operating, or using a sport shooting range for the sport shooting of firearms shall be subject to any action for civil or criminal liability, damages, abatement, or injunctive relief resulting from or relating to noise generated by the operation of the range if the range remains in compliance with noise control or nuisance abatement rules, regulations, statutes, or ordinances applicable to the range on the date on which it commenced operation.

(d) No rules, regulations, statutes, or ordinances relating to noise control, noise pollution, or noise abatement adopted or enacted by a unit of government shall be applied retroactively to prohibit conduct at a sport shooting range, which conduct was lawful and being engaged in prior to the adoption or enactment of such rules, regulations, statutes, or ordinances.

History

Code 1981, § 41-1-9, enacted by Ga. L. 1997, p. 796, § 1.

Annotations

Editor’s notes. Ga. L. 1997, p. 796, § 2, not codified by the General Assembly, makes this Code

section applicable to conduct occurring on or after July 1, 1997, and provides that this Code section shall not apply to or affect conduct occurring prior to July 1, 1997.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS No injunction as a nuisance. - Sporting clay course cannot be enjoined as a sound generating nuisance if the course does not run afoul of local noise control

ordinances or ordinances aimed at the regulation of a sport shooting range. Jenkins v. Clayton, 273 Ga. 439, 542 S.E.2d 503, 2001 Ga. LEXIS 156 (2001).

RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. Proof of Facts. Citizen Suit Under the Noise Control Act, 58 POF3d 315.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases, 2001–2019 · leading case: Jenkins v. Clayton, 542 S.E.2d 503 (Ga. 2001).
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Jenkins v. Clayton, 542 S.E.2d 503 (Ga. 2001). · cites it 4× “Defendants appeal asserting, inter alia, OCGA § 41-1-9 (c), which was enacted in 1997, forbids their sporting clay course from being enjoined as a noise generating nuisance.”
3 Rivers Logistics, Inc. v. Brown-Wright Post No. 158 of the Am. Legion, 548 S.W.3d 137 (Ark. 2018). “The Georgia statute, OCGA § 41-1-9(c) provided, in pertinent part: No sport shooting range .”
Etowah Valley Sporting Clay Park, LLC v. Dawson Cnty., 669 S.E.2d 436 (Ga. Ct. App. 2008). · cites it 4× “After a hearing, the trial court denied preliminary relief and held that “Etowah Valley’s gun shooting course cannot be enjoined as a noise generating nuisance” pursuant to OCGA § 41-1-9. 6 Before filing the First Action, the County notified Etowah Valley by certified letter of…”
Goldstein v. Peacemaker Props., LLC, 828 S.E.2d 276 (W. Va. 2019). “Section 41-1-9(c) of the Code of Georgia states: No sport shooting range or unit of government or person owning, operating, or using a sport shooting range for the sport shooting of firearms shall be subject to any action for civil or criminal liability, damages, abatement, or…”
Goldstein v. Peacemaker Props., LLC, 825 S.E.2d 337 (W. Va. 2019). “Section 41-1-9(c) of the Code of Georgia states: No sport shooting range or unit of government or person owning, operating, or using a sport shooting range for the sport shooting of firearms shall be subject to any action for civil or criminal liability, damages, abatement, or…”
— 41-1-9(c) — 1 case
3 Rivers Logistics, Inc. v. Brown-Wright Post No. 158 of the Am. Legion, 548 S.W.3d 137 (Ark. 2018). “The Georgia statute, OCGA § 41-1-9(c) provided, in pertinent part: No sport shooting range .”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.