WESLEY CHAPEL -- A much-challenged gun owner was deemed to own and use all his weapons legally.

A group in Wesley Chapel who call themselves “citizens for safer neighborhoods,” asked District Attorney John Snyder to investigate the legal ownership of weapons, especially the automatic weapons, Michael Land fires on a gun range near the Stonegate neighborhood. Snyder reported that all the guns were owned legally and that Land fires the guns legally.

“I looked at everything they asked me to he is as legal as can be,” Snyder said. “He has followed the letter of the law.”

Surrounding property owners saw it differently.

“I’m very disappointed that the D.A. doesn’t look at the whole law,” Kathy Patterson, with the citizens for safer neighborhoods group, said.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has also approved every weapon Land owns and fires; it has also approved Land’s gun range in Wesley Chapel.

The specific North Carolina statute the safer neighborhoods group wanted inspected was N.C. General Statute 14-409 which regulates machine guns; the law allows automatic weapons if they are registered with the sheriff and used in conjunction with a business. Patterson said Land has no business at the Wesley Chapel address.

“I want a tax I.D. number. I want a document that shows me there is a business down there,” she said.

In response, Snyder simply reiterated that Land has fully complied with all the laws and meets all the criteria of statute 14-409.

In an e-mail, Land said he had no comment.

Patterson did not know what the next step for the group would be, but that they would continue to fight Land and his use of the high-powered weapons.

“It’s very discouraging,” she said about Snyder’s ruling. “We are in danger. It’s not about the noise, it’s about the danger. ... These are our homes. This is where we raise our families. We’ll pursue this until justice is done.”