A gun club in Peterborough that constructed a new shooting range without obtaining permits — and encroached on land owned by a neighbor — has lost its latest legal fight.
A unanimous New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the town of Peterborough enforced zoning laws that are in compliance with state law when it issued a cease and desist order against the Monadnock Rod and Gun Club, and then rejected the group’s request for a zoning exemption.
“This case involves the Town’s authority to enforce its land use regulations with respect to a shooting range,” Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald wrote in an eight page opinion. The court also rejected the club’s claims that its Second Amendment rights were being infringed.
For decades, the gun club used a shooting range with a west-east orientation. Then, in 2015, the club cleared land and filled in wetlands without obtaining a permit, and began to construct a range with a north-south orientation. Aerial photographs confirmed that the new range stretched onto a neighbor’s property without their consent. Those neighbors found bullets on their land, and were ultimately awarded a nearly $650,000 settlement.
In 2019, Peterborough amended its zoning ordinances to require all new shooting ranges be indoors and enclosed. Monadnock Rod and Gun Club was subsequently denied a variance from the Peterborough zoning board, and later filed an appeal, but a superior court judge rejected the gun club’s case.
In a last ditch appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, the gun club argued that Peterborough's policies were infringing on protected Second Amendment rights, but the court also rejected that claim because it didn’t raise those concerns during lower court hearings.
A lawyer for the club didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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