Ch. 790 WEAPONS AND FIREARMS F.S. 2017
(e) Projectiles are integral to sport shooting and
training range activity and to the ownership and use of
firearms.
(f) Over years of operation, projectiles have accumulated
in the environment at many ranges. Whether
this projectile accumulation has caused or will cause
degradation of the environment or harm to human
health depends on factors that are site-specific. Therefore,
sport shooting and training ranges must be allowed
flexibility to apply appropriate environmental management
practices at ranges. The use of environmental
management practices can be implemented to avoid or
reduce any potential for adverse environmental impact.
(g) The Department of Environmental Protection, in
collaboration with shooting range owners and operators,
sport shooting organizations, law enforcement
representatives, and university researchers, has developed
shooting range best management practices in
order to minimize any potential for any adverse environmental
impact resulting from the operation of shooting
ranges.
(h) Appropriate environmental management practices,
when implemented where applicable, can minimize
or eliminate environmental impacts associated
with projectiles. Environmental management practices
to maintain or to improve the condition of ranges is
evolving and will continue to evolve.
(i) Unnecessary litigation and unnecessary regulation
by governmental agencies of sport shooting and
training ranges impairs the ability of residents of this
state to ensure safe handling of firearms and to enjoy
the recreational opportunities ranges provide. The cost
of defending these actions is prohibitive and threatens
to bankrupt and destroy the sport shooting and training
range industry.
(j) The Department of Environmental Protection
does not have nor has it ever had authority to force
permitting requirements of part IV of chapter 403 on
owners and operators of sport shooting and training
ranges.
(k) The elimination of sport shooting ranges will
unnecessarily impair the ability of residents of this state
to exercise and practice their constitutional guarantees
under the Second Amendment to the United States
Constitution and under s. 8, Art. I of the State Constitution.
(2) LEGISLATIVE INTENT.—The Legislature intends
to protect public and private sport shooting or
training range owners, operators, users, employees,
agents, contractors, customers, lenders, and insurers
from lawsuits and other legal actions by the state,
special purpose districts, or political subdivisions and to
promote maximum flexibility for implementation of
environmental management practices and of the principles
of risk-based corrective action pursuant to s.
376.30701. It is also the intent of the Legislature that
legal action against sport shooting and training ranges
will only be a last-resort option and be available only to
the department and only after all reasonable efforts to
resolve disputes at shooting ranges, including compliance
assistance, negotiations, and alternative dispute
resolution, have been attempted.
(3) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this act:
(a) “Department” means the Department of Environmental
Protection.
(b) “Operator” means any person who operates or
has operated a sport shooting or training range.
(c) “Owner” means any person who owns or has
owned a sport shooting or training range or any interest
therein.
(d) “Projectile” means any object expelled, propelled,
discharged, shot, or otherwise released from a
firearm, BB gun, airgun, or similar device, including, but
not limited to, gunpowder, ammunition, lead, shot,
skeet, and trap targets and associated chemicals,
derivatives, and constituents thereof.
(e) “Environmental management practices” includes
but is not limited to Best Management Practices
for Environmental Stewardship of Florida Shooting
Ranges as developed by the Department of Environmental
Protection. Such practices include, but are not
limited to, control and containment of projectiles, prevention
of the migration of projectiles and their constituents
to ground and surface water, periodic removal
and recycling of projectiles, and documentation of
actions taken.
(f) “Environment” means the air, water, surface
water, sediment, soil, and groundwater and other
natural and manmade resources of this state.
(g) “User” means any person, partner, joint venture,
business or social entity, or corporation, or any group of
the foregoing, organized or united for a business, sport,
or social purpose.
(h) “Sport shooting and training range” or “range”
means any area that has been designed, or operated for
the use of, firearms, rifles, shotguns, pistols, silhouettes,
skeet, trap, black powder, BB guns, airguns, or
similar devices, or any other type of sport or training
shooting.
(4) DUTIES.—
(a) No later than January 1, 2005, the department
shall make a good faith effort to provide copies of the
Best Management Practices for Environmental Stewardship
of Florida Shooting Ranges to all owners or
operators of sport shooting or training ranges. The
department shall also provide technical assistance with
implementing environmental management practices,
which may include workshops, demonstrations, or
other guidance, if any owner or operator of sport
shooting or training ranges requests such assistance.
(b) No later than January 1, 2006, sport shooting or
training range owners, operators, tenants, or occupants
shall implement situation appropriate environmental
management practices.
(c) If contamination is suspected or identified by any
owner, operator, tenant, or occupant of sport shooting
or training ranges, any owner, operator, tenant, or
occupant of sport shooting or training ranges may
request that the department assist with or perform
contamination assessment, including, but not limited to,
assistance preparing and presenting a plan to confirm
the presence and extent of contamination.
(d) If contamination is suspected or identified by a
third-party complaint or adjacent property sampling
events, the department shall give 60 days’ notice to
the sport shooting or training range owner, operator,
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