Merced County Sheriff’s deputies confiscated a rifle from Atwater Mayor Jim Price after receiving reports that he was allegedly shooting squirrels while sitting in his truck.

CBS Sacramento reports that Price was allegedly “shooting at squirrels from his truck on the active airfield while people were nearby.”

One witness, James Allen, claims he was parked near the airport and heard one of Price’s rounds go over his head. Allen said, “He was [allegedly] shooting in my direction. As you can imagine, I got pretty scared, and I bounced.”

Allen then called the police, and deputies arrived and surrounded Price’s vehicle.

After the suspect was identified as Mayor Price, Allen said, “To find out that it was the mayor shooting [according to police] … where people jog and have lunch and stuff like that, mind-blowing; like I could not believe it.”

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke indicated that “Price owns a side business providing fuel services at the airport and was allegedly shooting squirrels to keep them off the flight path. The problem is, the sheriff says, Mayor Price doesn’t have a permit to shoot wildlife or to fire a gun on a flight path.”

In addition to losing his rifle, Mayor Price was also “ordered to give up his concealed carry permit.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange