File this under things we didn't ever think would need to be encoded in state statute.
Among several other bills he signed Wednesday, Governor Rick Scott gave the nod to a bill that makes it illegal to recreationally discharge a firearm in a densely populated residential area.
The bill passed in the State House and State Senate earlier this month after a similar bill died in the legislature last year.
According to the News Service of Florida, the bill makes "target shooting or celebratory shooting" in areas where there's one residential unit per acre a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail.
It comes after two incidents widely publicized; the first being a 2014 segment on The Colbert Report that highlighted a Big Pine Key resident's firing of guns in his yard, which abuts the Intracoastal Waterway, and the second a St. Petersburg man who wanted to do target practice in his dad's back yard (but was later dissuaded from doing so).
Both incidences were, astonishingly, technically legal, and each made Florida a national laughingstock.
But now home gun ranges in residential areas are not legal, as the law goes into effect immediately.
Among the bill's proponents were lawmakers as well as — again, surprisingly — gun lobbyist extraordinaire Marion Hammer.
And she never supports laws restricting gun rights or lets state government do anything to limit people's ability to own and carry guns.
This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2016.