My friend's house was hit by a bullet... advice

[Jeepsnguns]

The second thing I was taught about firearms, is the distance an errant bullet can go. I can still hear my father saying: miles...that bullet will go for miles. He may have stretched it a bit, but I got his point!

Your old man was good to teach you that MadMan!

The following is not necessarily helpful to this post since most of y'all already adhere to these 4 simple rules, but I like repeating them anyway just in case any firearm newbies are reading random FSN posts.

All guns are always loaded.
Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

Mags neighbors, neighbor shooting all wild from his backyard is obviously not too keen on rule #4 ???

[SteyrAUG]

Amazing to me that there are still people who don't know it's NOT ok to shoot outside with a HOUSE in the immediate background.

I understand the dream is a backyard range, but unless you have a serious backstop, it's just a dream. Pretty sure that every place in the United States, firing into an OCCUPIED DWELLING is not just a crime but a felony.

The responding officers are dipshits, the homeowner in question is obviously a dipshit. Lawyer up and sue to guy shooting your house AND the officers who failed to act.

[MadMan]

790.19 Shooting into or throwing deadly missiles into dwellings, public or private buildings, occupied or not occupied; vessels, aircraft, buses, railroad cars, streetcars, or other vehicles.—Whoever, wantonly or maliciously, shoots at, within, or into, or throws any missile or hurls or projects a stone or other hard substance which would produce death or great bodily harm, at, within, or in any public or private building, occupied or unoccupied, or public or private bus or any train, locomotive, railway car, caboose, cable railway car, street railway car, monorail car, or vehicle of any kind which is being used or occupied by any person, or any boat, vessel, ship, or barge lying in or plying the waters of this state, or aircraft flying through the airspace of this state shall be guilty of a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

[Tenzing_Norgay]

790.19 Shooting into or throwing deadly missiles into dwellings, public or private buildings, occupied or not occupied; vessels, aircraft, buses, railroad cars, streetcars, or other vehicles.—Whoever, wantonly or maliciously, shoots at, within, or into, or throws any missile or hurls or projects a stone or other hard substance which would produce death or great bodily harm, at, within, or in any public or private building, occupied or unoccupied, or public or private bus or any train, locomotive, railway car, caboose, cable railway car, street railway car, monorail car, or vehicle of any kind which is being used or occupied by any person, or any boat, vessel, ship, or barge lying in or plying the waters of this state, or aircraft flying through the airspace of this state shall be guilty of a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

"Wantonly or maliciously" is not the same as "accidentally or negligently".

[SteyrAUG]

790.19 Shooting into or throwing deadly missiles into dwellings, public or private buildings, occupied or not occupied; vessels, aircraft, buses, railroad cars, streetcars, or other vehicles.—Whoever, wantonly or maliciously, shoots at, within, or into, or throws any missile or hurls or projects a stone or other hard substance which would produce death or great bodily harm, at, within, or in any public or private building, occupied or unoccupied, or public or private bus or any train, locomotive, railway car, caboose, cable railway car, street railway car, monorail car, or vehicle of any kind which is being used or occupied by any person, or any boat, vessel, ship, or barge lying in or plying the waters of this state, or aircraft flying through the airspace of this state shall be guilty of a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

"Wantonly or maliciously" is not the same as "accidentally or negligently".

Get what you are saying but I'm pretty sure he knew the house was there so I think that easily puts us into "Wantonly" territory. It's not like he had an ND on his property.

[Tenzing_Norgay]

790.19 Shooting into or throwing deadly missiles into dwellings, public or private buildings, occupied or not occupied; vessels, aircraft, buses, railroad cars, streetcars, or other vehicles.—Whoever, wantonly or maliciously, shoots at, within, or into, or throws any missile or hurls or projects a stone or other hard substance which would produce death or great bodily harm, at, within, or in any public or private building, occupied or unoccupied, or public or private bus or any train, locomotive, railway car, caboose, cable railway car, street railway car, monorail car, or vehicle of any kind which is being used or occupied by any person, or any boat, vessel, ship, or barge lying in or plying the waters of this state, or aircraft flying through the airspace of this state shall be guilty of a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

"Wantonly or maliciously" is not the same as "accidentally or negligently".

Get what you are saying but I'm pretty sure he knew the house was there so I think that easily puts us into "Wantonly" territory. It's not like he had an ND on his property.

wan·ton·ly
/ˈwänt(ə)nlē/
adverb
1.
in a deliberate and unprovoked manner.
"during the raids, the police wantonly destroyed property"

If he's firing into a backstop, it's not "wanton" or "malicious". If he was notified prior and continued with his actions, it becomes wanton & malicious.

I'm sure it's against the law to shoot someone's house, but the quoted statute does not apply.

[SteyrAUG]

I guess where I was going was a "reasonable" person should have known his backstop was not sufficient.

[Wizard78]

Not doubting your friend but something sounds fishy. If the house out back is "about" 1000 feet (let's say 300 yds) away and there are some woods between him and your friends property, (let's say 150 feet of woods, 50 yds) and I'm sure at least the same from your friends house to woods (another 50 yds), that would be 400 yds! A pistol round would have likely hit the ground before reaching the woods and realistically, a 308 round would drop 3 to 6 feet and miraculously make it through woods before reaching the house. Unless the shooter was pushing a shot at a high angle (which in turn would show when penetrating through walls, I'd guess that the shot was taken on your friends side of the property or someone shooting in the woods or possibly just in back of woods. Friend should dig bullet out from wall before pursuing legally. Also possible that your or my distance estimates are wrong.

[kmagnuss]

Not doubting your friend but something sounds fishy. If the house out back is "about" 1000 feet (let's say 300 yds) away and there are some woods between him and your friends property, (let's say 150 feet of woods, 50 yds) and I'm sure at least the same from your friends house to woods (another 50 yds), that would be 400 yds! A pistol round would have likely hit the ground before reaching the woods and realistically, a 308 round would drop 3 to 6 feet and miraculously make it through woods before reaching the house. Unless the shooter was pushing a shot at a high angle (which in turn would show when penetrating through walls, I'd guess that the shot was taken on your friends side of the property or someone shooting in the woods or possibly just in back of woods. Friend should dig bullet out from wall before pursuing legally. Also possible that your or my distance estimates are wrong.

There "used" to be woods there. It was recently cleared to build houses. I haven't read my first post in awhile so maybe I didn't make that clear.
I used a distance app to measure it... comes out to just about 900' per satellite images.

Edit... Looks like I didn't mention the woods having been recently cleared in my initial post. Now it's just a straight shot between the range and his house. Those woods probably kept some of the strays in check until recently.

[trouter3]

We are beating a dead horse gentlemen, guessing at the circumstances we know not all the variables, facts, we dont even know if the neighbor was aware he hit the house or if he knows the law on the discharging of a firearm toward a dwelling, so many questions very few answers and a lot of guessing .......,

Peace and tranquility and ....be careful of where your shooting your weapon ...