After a number of close calls over the past few years, the LaSalle Police Service thinks it's time the town brought in new rules for the use of firearms near the Detroit River.
A report to town council Monday night shows how police in LaSalle have responded to 44 discharge of firearms complaints since 2013. There was four last year, compared to a high of 11 in 2016, but as development continues to grow along the river, police fear someone will get hurt by a stray bullet.
It has happened in the past.
According to the report, a woman was hit in the face by an errant bullet while working in her garden in 2013. Police said two men on a boat on the river were firing guns.
In 2014, police responded to a call where a man discharging his firearm almost hit two people walking along the waterfront.
Last September, a man was working on his boat at a local marina when errant bullets hit metal nearby. Two hunters were firing their guns from a nearby duck blind.
The report said there is no provincial or federal legislation restricting the use of firearms on waterways in LaSalle, but the Town of Tecumseh and the Town of Lakeshore do have regulations prohibiting possession of firearms unless it is unloaded and encased under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.
