Grass Roots North Carolina, a Charlotte-based nonprofit, has been an advocate for Second Amendment rights in the state since 1994. Last fall, the group turned its attention to Johnston to discourage County Commissioners from passing an ordinance meant to reduce the risk of stray gunfire.

In October, commissioners asked the planning staff to prepare an ordinance after hearing complaints from residents who worried about stray bullets hitting their homes. In November, the planning staff drafted an ordinance that would ban the firing of weapons within 600 feet of occupied buildings, unless the buildings' owners said it was OK.

Grass Roots President Paul Valone said he then began hearing from Johnston residents who considered the proposed ordinance an infringement on their constitutional rights. "That [original version] was ridiculous," Valone said last week. "But if we had done nothing, it probably would have slid through."

Grass Roots North Carolina, or GRNC, uses its database of 199,000 gun owners in North Carolina, including 3,700 in Johnston, to keep gun enthusiasts informed about legislation that would potentially limit gun use, Valone said. GRNC released its first e-mail alert about what is calls the "Johnston County Anti-Gun Ordinance" on Dec. 18.

"Johnston County commissioners are considering an ordinance to ban shooting of any kind of projectile within 600 feet of a dwelling," the alert read. "This would include BB and pellet guns. Upon questioning, county officials admitted that this would even include bows and arrows. Aren't you happy that these officials want to protect you from yourselves! Once again our elected officials seem to be mistaking themselves for our mothers."

The alert encouraged readers to contact commissioners, and it provided a link to the county's website.

Opponents rally

In December and January, County Commissioners received phone calls and nearly 150 e-mails in protest of the ordinance, prompting Commissioners Chairman Allen Mims Jr. to postpone a Jan. 3 public hearing on the ordinance. Mims then formed the Good Neighbor Firearms Ordinance Work Group to allow local gun enthusiasts and county officials to review and revise the ordinance together.

The work group is made up of seven citizen members, two commissioners, two county staff members and a Johnston County sheriff's deputy. Mims said he chose the citizen members based on how knowledgeable and courteous they were when they contacted him. None of the members are anti-gun, Mims said.

Two of the seven citizen members have said they subscribe to GRNC e-mail alerts. Todd Blackburn of Clayton works part-time as a range officer and instructor, and Jeff Lawrence is a Four Oaks firearms dealer who considers himself a GRNC representative. The two have played major roles in reshaping the proposed ordinance. The work group has met twice, and the county planning staff revised the ordinance after both meetings.

GRNC sent this e-mail alert before the work group's first meeting: "As we had told you earlier, the Johnston County commissioners are considering an ordinance to ban shooting of any kind of projectile within 600 feet of a dwelling. Due to your vocal feedback, they dropped back to see how they could soothe and go around you in trying to do this. So now the earlier meeting they had postponed will take place. ... Let's do our best to pack the room."

The "earlier meeting" is the Jan. 3 public hearing that commissioners postponed.

More than 30 people showed up for the Jan. 20 work-group meeting. After the meeting, county staff made their most dramatic changes to the ordinance: throwing out the ban on firing weapons within 600 feet of a building.

Under the influence

On Feb. 6, one day before the most-recent work group meeting, GRNC sent out another alert. This one addressed a section of the ordinance that would punish reckless use of firearms while under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance.

"While your input has produced some positive movement, the commissioners are still bent on punishing law-abiding citizens for the irresponsibility of a few," the alert said. "While this sounds innocuous and well-meaning, consider this: As presented, if you had a beer for lunch and then 4 hours later dispatched a rat on your 10 acre lot, you would be guilty of a crime. The same would apply if you had just come out of having a wisdom tooth removed and had prescribed a controlled substance like, say, Tylenol with codeine."

County planner Berry Gray said GRNC was reading too much into the proposed ordinance. "[H]aving alcohol or a prescribed/over-the-counter drug is not a problem as long as your physical and mental faculties are not influenced to the point that you discharge a firearm carelessly and heedlessly, so as to endanger any person or property," Gray said in an e-mail. "This version was not intended to restrict the consumption of alcohol as long as the alcohol does not influence judgment or motor skills, which is why 'under the influence' is included in the original wording of the section."

When asked about the alert, Valone, the GRNC president, said volunteers usually write the e-mails, and he said he didn't want to discuss specific wording. "Miscommunications happen, I'm sure," he said of the alert. "We're perfectly aware of what's in the ordinance at this point and time."

Mims and Jeffrey Carver, the other commissioner on the work group, said they think the alerts might have misled some residents.

"It's disappointing that citizens don't always hear accurate information," Mims said. "It makes my job harder, but it happens in politics all the time."

The section about firing a gun while under the influence is no longer a issue for GRNC, Valone said The group has no problem with that section now that the county staff has used the word "intoxicated" in the ordinance.

GRNC continues to object to a provision that would ban the use of guns from two hours after sunset to one hour before sunrise. "I think it should be dropped," Valone said. "There is a noise ordinance which deals with the problem of celebratory gunfire right now."

The noise ordinance, however, "does not clearly include the discharge of firearms," said Gray, the county planner.

Political action

Valone said GRNC is prepared to take political action if commissioners don't remove that section from the ordinance. "If passed by the commission, the GRNC Political Victory Fund will take an interest in future county commission elections," the group said in a January e-mail to commissioners.

Typically, Grass Roots North Carolina doesn't give its money directly to candidates. Instead, GRNC pays for mailers and radio ads supporting candidates.

Asked what action GRNC would take in Johnston, Valone said, "That remains to be seen. ... We are capable of lighting up their world."