[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Council of the Township of Livingston
11-5-1979 as §§ 18-1, 18-17 to 18-21 of the 1979 Revised General
Ordinances. Amendments noted where applicable.]
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
Any pistol, revolver, rifle, shotgun, machine gun, automatic and
semiautomatic rifle, or other firearm as the term is commonly used, or any
gun, device or instrument in the nature of a weapon from which may be fired
or ejected any solid projectile, ball, slug, pellet, missile or bullet, or
any gas, vapor or other noxious thing, by means of a cartridge or shell or
by the action of an explosive or the igniting of flammable or explosive substances.
It shall also include, without limitation, any firearm which is in the nature
of any air gun, spring gun or pistol, carbon dioxide or compressed air gun
or pistol, or other weapon of a similar nature in which the propelling force
is a spring, elastic band, carbon dioxide, compressed or other gas, or vapor,
air or compressed air, or is ignited by compressed air, and ejecting a bullet
or missile smaller than 3/8 of an inch in diameter, with sufficient force
to injure the person.
No person shall discharge any firearm within the Township, except as provided in § 137-3 of this chapter.
This chapter shall not apply to:
A.
Law enforcement officers authorized by law to carry and
discharge firearm in the performance of their duties.
B.
Persons actually engaged in the defense of life, person
or property.
C.
Farms or other private property within the meaning and
definition of N.J.S.A. 23:4-9 and 23:4-42, when necessary for the protection
of fruit, vegetables, trees, shrubbery, nursery stock, cultivated grass, planted
crops or other produce; provided, however, that a permit has been issued in
accordance with the provisions of the aforesaid statutory sections.
D.
Private property of an owner or his tenant or lessee,
during the several seasons for the hunting of game as fixed by statute, provided
that said property is at least 100 acres in area and is duly posted; and provided,
further, that no such firearm or weapon shall be discharged therein within
500 feet of any public street or highway or of any dwelling, barn or other
building;
E.
Any duly established range or place for the shooting
at targets with any revolver, pistol, rifle or other firearm, provided, however,
that a license to operate and maintain such range has been obtained from the
Township.
(1)
Application for such license shall be made to the Council,
which may, if it determines that such range will not involve danger to persons
in the vicinity thereof, authorize the Township Clerk to issue such license
upon the payment of a fee of $15.
(2)
Any such license so issued shall be valid for a period
not exceeding one year and shall expire on the 31st day of December of the
year in which the same was issued, unless sooner revoked by the Council.
(3)
The Council may at any time revoke any such license upon
the complaint of persons residing in the vicinity of said range or may revoke
the same on its own initiative, if it finds and determines that such range
constitutes a nuisance.
A.
Except as provided in Subsection B of this section, no person shall shoot or discharge any metal-tipped arrow by any bow drawn, held or released by manual or mechanical means in the Township.
B.
Nothing herein contained shall be deemed or construed
to prohibit any person from shooting or discharging any such arrow, in the
manner aforesaid, in the following circumstances or places:
(1)
While hunting pursuant to and in accordance with the
provisions of state statutes and the State Fish and Game Code.
(2)
In any public school or park area in connection with
a supervised program of archery instruction, practice or competition conducted
by or under the auspices of the Board of Education or the Department of Recreation
and Parks.
(3)
While on private property owned by him or with the consent
of the owner or tenant thereof, provided that such shooting shall be at fixed
targets so placed so as not to endanger adjoining or adjacent property or
any person on such private property or on such adjoining or adjacent property
or on any street.
Upon the filing of a complaint that this chapter has been violated,
the Chief of Police is hereby authorized forthwith to take or cause to be
taken and retained in his custody the revolver, rifle, pistol, shotgun or
other firearm, slingshot, bow and arrow, air or spring gun or other instrument
or weapon of which the propelling force is spring or air, the carrying or
using of which is complained of, together with the cartridges used or intended
to be used therewith, and if such person is thereafter convicted of violating
this chapter, the same shall be forfeited to the Township.
Unless another penalty is expressly provided herein, any person who
violates any provision of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, be
punished by a fine not exceeding $500, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding
90 days, or both. A separate offense shall be deemed committed on each day
during or on which a violation occurs or continues.
