Due to the increasing density of population
and development in the Township, the Board finds that it is necessary
to regulate the use of firearms in the Township and to prohibit unauthorized
discharge of the same in order to protect the health, safety and welfare
of the residents and visitors of the Township.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following
definitions shall apply:
FIREARM
Any weapon which discharges a projectile by means of gunpowder,
air pressure or any other explosive force.
SHOOTING
The discharge or release of a projectile, whether bullets,
slugs, pellets or a pointed arrow, discharged from any weapon.
TARGET RANGE
A place for shooting weapons, having a natural or artificial
barrier of sufficient size and density to stop any projectile fired
into it and which is approved and designated of record by the Birmingham
Township Chief of Police as a target range.
WEAPON
Any shotgun, rifle, automatic weapon, pistol, revolver, airgun,
air pistol, pellet gun, paint pellet gun, BB gun, spring gun, bow
used to propel a pointed arrow, any implement that is not a firearm
but which impels a pellet of any kind with a force that can reasonably
be expected to cause bodily harm, or any weapon similar to any of
the foregoing of whatever caliber or type.
Except as provided in §
55-4C hereof, it shall be unlawful and a violation of this chapter for any person to fire or discharge any weapon in Birmingham Township. The violator shall be subject to the penalty provisions of §
55-7.
The careless, reckless or improper use of any weapon which tends to imperil or cause danger or harm to personal security or to endanger the person or the property of any person within Birmingham Township is prohibited. Any such careless, reckless or improper use shall constitute a violation of this chapter and subject the violator to the penalty provisions of §
55-7.
Legible signs giving public notice of the essential
provisions of this chapter may be posted at or near the public highways
at the boundaries of Birmingham Township; provided, however, that
it shall not be a defense to any prosecution for violation of this
chapter that the violator did not see or understand any such sign
or that any such sign did not contain sufficient description of the
provisions of this chapter to adequately warn the violator.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General
Provisions, Art. I)]
Any person who violates or permits a violation
of this chapter shall, upon conviction in a summary proceeding brought
before a Magisterial District Judge under the Pennsylvania Rules of
Criminal Procedure, be guilty of a summary offense and shall be punishable
by a fine of not more than $1,000, plus costs of prosecution. In default
of payment thereof, the defendant may be sentenced to imprisonment
for a term not exceeding 90 days. Each day or portion thereof that
such violation continues or is permitted to continue shall constitute
a separate offense, and each section of this chapter that is violated
shall also constitute a separate offense.