The Eagle City Council unanimously voted down a proposal Tuesday night that would have changed where people could shoot within city limits but city leaders and neighbors say the conversation is far from over.Mayor Brad Pike sat down with Idaho News 6 Wednesday afternoon to talk about what comes next. He said the vote was specifically on two items within Ordinance 942 the weapons discharge section and a noise ordinance component. The noise ordinance will continue to be refined separately. The weapons discharge section, which deals with firearm discharge within city limits, is what generated the most debate.Pike said the core issue is not about restricting gun rights but about managing a growing collision between different users of the same BLM land north of Beacon Light Road."We want to make sure that they have their freedoms, but at the same time I have to look out for the freedoms of the other people that want to enjoy the BLM land as well," Pike said.He said the city is not asking people to stop shooting; just to move to areas that are less likely to send rounds toward homes and developments."We're not trying to restrict. We're asking people to be part of the good community and move over to the allotted areas that we know will have a better opportunity to not encroach on the homes and the developments that's happening," Pike said.He said the next step will be to reconvene with a better visual to show the public exactly what the council is concerned about.WATCH | Eagle's foothills shooting debate is far from over Eagle's foothills shooting debate is far from overTim Merrifield lives on Hartley Road close to the entrance to the approximately 1,600 acres of BLM land annexed into the city of Eagle. He said the area is a great place to recreate and draws people from Eagle and surrounding communities, but that the shooting situation has been getting progressively worse."The shooting aspect is just something that continues to get worse and worse and worse over the last several years," Merrifield said.He said the most popular shooting spot is right at the top of the hill near the entrance because it is convenient. But he said it is not safe. He said he and his neighbors hear ricochets from that location at least once or twice a week, that shooting continues late into the night, and that full automatics and large-caliber weapons are regularly used. A stray bullet has already left a divot in a roof on his street.Merrifield said he is not against shooting he also enjoys shooting, just farther down the road where it is safer. He said the council is not trying to take anything away."At the most, they're infringing on your ability to be convenient, to simply go just a few 100 yards. They're asking to simply go another one mile down the road so that you can be in a place that's safer," Merrifield said.He said the Eagle Foothills Recreation Plan approved by the city council more than five years ago already recommended using the proposed Linder Road extension as a dividing line, with shooting and motorized vehicles on the eastern side and hiking, biking and equestrian use on the western side. He said nothing has been done with that plan.Merrifield also raised the wildfire risk noting that the area has seen fires of 500 acres, 130 acres and 30 acres in a single year, driven in part by bonfires and shooting-related fires."We simply just would like a couple of common sense ideas that allow us and those that live right here on the edges just a little more safety," Merrifield said.Burk Mantel has lived adjacent to the BLM land for years and has been coming to the area to hunt pheasants and other game since 1981. He said he is a turkey hunter, deer hunter, elk hunter and bird hunter and is not anti-gun. But he said the shooting situation has driven nearly every other user away from the western end of the BLM land."No mother is going to walk her children up the hill when she hears shooting up ahead," Mantel said.He said his own house has been hit by shotgun pellets, adding that a bullet recently went through a picture window in an Avimor home and lodged in the living room wall. He also mentioned a hiker once returning to find a bullet hole in his parked truck.He also raised a concern that few others had mentioned the brass left behind by pistol shooters. He said short pieces of brass from 9mm and .38 special rounds can easily work their way into a horse's hoof, causing injury and infection. He said he has not seen an equestrian in the area in about five years."What I want to see is people using their guns safely," Mantel said.Mantel said he supports moving shooting to the eastern end of the BLM land where the land is much wider, up to three-quarters of a mile in some areas, compared to only 400 to 500 yards at the western entrance. He said that provides far more opportunity to find safe shooting positions with proper backstops."The future of shooting is going to be on managed ranges. We just can't have people running around wherever they feel like it, going out and shooting wherever they feel like it," Mantel said.He said the city has been aware of this problem for at least six to seven years."It's time to quit kicking the can down the road and make some final decisions about where the safe shooting area will be established," Mantel said.Eagle neighbor Hank Allen said he commended the council for voting unanimously against the proposal once all the information came out but said the underlying problem still needs to be solved. He said the responsibility for finding a replacement shooting area should not fall entirely on the city the developers from Avimor and Villanova should also help."Before we take away our existing BLM shooting land that we have here, we need to replace it with a new place to shoot," Allen said."If us citizens, we all come together and support our council and bring all the stakeholders together, we can find an option that works for everybody, but let's not give up our current shooting range until we have a solution," Allen said.City leaders say this conversation is not over with more discussions expected about possible shooting areas and long-term safety solutions. ...read more read less