Fighting for Duelist’s Den
Many of you already know about this from Facebook and YouTube, but it’s time I said something about it here.
On 24 February 2023, I got a letter from North Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania where my Duelist’s Den property is located. The letter said that the Township had received complaints that I’m operating a shooting range, and I have no zoning permission for such an operation.
And just to rub my nose in it, they cited me with eight additional violations for lack of infrastructure required to operate a shooting range under North Hopewell’s ordinances, such as the lack of unclimbable, 7-foot high side berms around each shooting lane, and lack of the appropriate safety signage. And so on.
This is obviously insane.
They are treating me the same as if I was operating a gun club, or a commercial range.
I was really puzzled because all my neighbors out there shoot on their property.
I assumed that that this was a mis-understanding, and that a simple phone call to the Zoning Officer would straighten things out.
I was wrong.
The Acting Zoning officer’s position is that my neighbors can shoot on their property and I can’t, is because they have houses on their property, therefore, the principle use of their property is as a domicile, and target shooting is just an ancillary use, which is allowed.
I, on the other hand have no house on the property. Therefore, if I target shoot on the property, even just once, that makes the primary use of my property a shooting range.
This is obviously a stretch, but, as I found out later, a cabal of politically connected locals decided they want me out. They went “Violation hunting” to find a way to get rid of me, and this is what they came up with.
Since I refuse to rollover on this, I’ve hired a top law firm that specializes in municipal law.
We filed an appeal with the zoning board. The hearing happened on 12 April 2023, and my appeal was denied. My lawyers told me to expect that because the appeal hearing is a political exercise, rather than a judicial proceeding.
The Zoning Board has 45 days to publish their official ruling. After we get it, we have 30 days to file suit challenging the Township in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas. It will probably not be until August or September, at the earliest, before we are in court.
Pennsylvania case law is very much in my favor on this issue, so we have a strong expectation of winning the case, but, nothing is guaranteed. If we lose in the Court of Common Pleas, I intend to appeal to Commonwealth Court.
This case is more important than it appears on the surface. If I lose, it will set a precedent so, if anyone in Pennsylvania targets shoots on land that they own, but do not have a house on the property, they will be operating a shooting range, and will be subject all their local ordinances that pertain to shooting ranges. And most municipalities do have shooting range ordinances.
Fighting this has already been ruinously expensive, but, thankfully, I’m not in this alone. Ken Hill set up a Go-Fund-Me page, which raised $60,000 dollars for my legal costs. This money came from my subscribers, fans and other supporters, and I couldn’t carry this fight forward without that support. I will have spent over $10,000 before we even see the inside of a courtroom.
This issue is consuming a great deal of my time, and, as a result, I can’t keep up with my weekly video release schedule, I apologize for that. Also, it is quite likely that I will not be able to film at Duelist Den this year. In fact, if we have to go to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, it may be several years before this is resolved.
But, however long it takes, I’ll stay in the fight.