Macedonia City Council.jpg

Law Director Joe Diemert (front left) and Macedonia City Council (from left to right) President Dave Engle, Rita Darrow, Sylvia Hanneken, Mayor Don Kuchta, Janet Tulley and Nick Molinar.

(John Harper/Northeast Ohio Media Group)

MACEDONIA, Ohio -- Macedonia City Council eliminated an exemption that allowed shooting ranges on private property and restoring a total shooting ban throughout the city Thursday night with a 3-2 vote.

The exemption had allowed homeowners with at least five acres to apply for an exemption to the city's shooting ban if they applied for a shooting range permit.

Rita Darrow, who co-sponsored the shooting range exemption three years ago, joined Nick Molnar in voting against scratching the exemption.

Read live coverage of Thursday night's council meeting.

Police Chief Jon Golden said that the police department had never granted any permits to allow homeowners to set up the shooting range.

"We have never used it, nobody has ever asked to use it and I would prefer that we do not have it," Golden said.

Council also changed the title of the ordinance to eliminate the word possession. The title now reads "A prohibition on the discharge of firearms.'

The law does not prohibit anyone from possessing or storing guns in city limits and also does not override state self-defense laws that may protect someone who uses a gun in a threatening situation.

Council Vice President Sylvia Hanneken said after the meeting that the exemption had made people worry about stray bullets.

"It's great if you are shooting at a berm in your back yard, but what happens when you miss the berm?" Hanneken said.

Darrow interjected: "The berm is designed so that a stray bullet would not hit anything. It would go over the berm and never be seen again," she said.

Council tabled two other pieces of legislation, one that would add an additional $62,000 position to the city's service department and another that would grant a tax exemption to Blackburn's Hubcap and Wheel.