Like the tweet from the Eagle tribune it is most likely nothing. Many people target practice on their own land and I have seen many take out unwanted critters with small rifles. Everyone need to stop overreacting or else our kids are going to grow up afraid to leave their house.

I'd rather have them overreact then assume all gun shots are non-issues. Also as a resident of Bear Hill Rd I think it's time to ban hunting and target practice on the Gage land - with a high school on one side and a resiential neighborhood on the other we need to consider how safe hunting is (and especially with hiking/running trails being used there year round). Let's not wait for a tragedy to apply some much needed common sense.

Interesting take Mike, Do you know the details of the target practice that takes place on that land? Do you hear it year-round or only during specific portions of the year?

School safety is important, but at the rate we are going someone will tap their pencil loudly and they will call a lockdown...

As a hunter of that area there is plenty of room to discharge a firearm safely and responsibly. If your that afraid of being shot at then move to Andover mass.. there is no discharge of firearms in that city.

I would agree that it is legal and theoreticaly safe if the hunters are following safe hunting guidelines - since we both know that isn't always the case - I'll stick to my position. My point is not to be anti-hunting - just anti-hunting in thickly settled rural areas abutting schools. If I did hunt I would opt for some of the open spaces in the northern part of the state.

@Mike, I will give you a break on some of your comments because you said you don't hunt and to me that would explain what you said. In southern NH you do not hunt with High powered riffles, it is shot guns only. I also believe that the set back is only 300' from a dwelling. As far as hunting in a thickly settled area well maybe they should not have built there. The hunting on gage property was going on long before Bear Hill rd and the High School.

One thing I should also add that wasn't in the story above -- a very similar incident took place last April. http://windham.patch.com/articles/staff-members-report-gunshots-heard-near-wms

Dennis is correct the distance is 300 feet from a permanently occupied dwelling ands 15 feet from the road. Shotgun,muzzelloader,handguns of certain caliber and bow and arrow of certain draw weight only south of rte. 101 with exceptions in Raymond and chester.

@Jim - I don't mind sharing with hunters - I do mind having the school thrown into lockdown mode and I don't like hearing muzzle loaders / shotguns firing in my backyard at 6 a.m. BTW - since a muzzleloader can be 50 cailber or better I think we're splitting hairs on the high powered comment - technically I am inaccurate but I think the point is a good one about the right place and time. If we threw a 1 mile circle around all the schools and said no discharging firearms - period - then our police department could focus their efforts on real crime and not false alarms. This isn't about being anti-hunting it is about recognizing Windham is not the same place as it was 50 years ago.

mike, a 50 cal muzzle loader is no more powerful than a shot gun, but you like the rest of the liberals are so misinformed by the media and the rest of the anti gunners its not worth arguing with you. People like you move up here from mass to be in a ''country setting'' then all you do is complain about hunting ,if all you mass folks moved out of Windham it would be just like it was 50 years ago, but that ain't going to happen and neither is your quest to ban hunting ,so I guess were going to have to learn to live with each other. Again hunting is only 2 months of the year and all the excise taxes that accompany our sport support every federal conservation project there is, if it wasent for hunters you hikers and nature lovers would be hiking down main st instead of well groomed trails and watching the wild gray squirrels instead of the wild whitetail deer and wild turkeys. We have learned to put up with you, so you need to learn to put up with us , if thats not possible perhaps you should move.