Opponents of a proposed shooting range in Jackson County’s Tilley Creek community stuck to their guns Monday night, imploring county commissioners to reconsider a moratorium on new ranges and to direct the planning board to write a regulatory ordinance for their operation.

They got half of what they wanted as commissioners agreed to direct the planning board to come up with a shooting range ordinance.

Two weeks ago, faced with a standing room only audience of concerned residents and gun rights advocates, commissioners were due to vote on whether to enact a moratorium, which would halt the construction of any new shooting ranges. A range is proposed for a 194-acre farm in Tilley Creek, located a few miles from the Western Carolina University campus near the county’s recreation complex.

At that meeting, Commissioner Joe Cowan made a motion for a moratorium; however, the motion died for lack of a second without discussion. No vote was held, and commission Chairman Brian McMahan said later that was the same as a vote against the moratorium. Some residents disagreed.

“No voting is not a vote no,” said moratorium proponent Louis Spagna during Monday night’s public comment period.

The need for a second to the motion in order to open the floor to discussion was called into question during the public comment portion of Monday night’s meeting, as Vera Guise, instructor of political science and public affairs at WCU, read an excerpt from the Institute of Government’s political handbook.

The handbook states that a motion does not require a second for discussion. The concept of desiring a second is based on having a board that is so large that it is only considered to be worth members’ time if at least two members support a motion.

“This concept is not applicable to small boards,” Guise read.

While that may be the case, McMahan said, those are not the rules the county chose to follow upon board members being elected in 2002. The Institute’s handbook provides “suggested rules,” McMahan said. Commissioners made it a part of routine procedure to require a second to a motion to open the floor to discussion.

“I think the board at that time felt like they should have the support of more than one person,” McMahan said.

However, it appears that Cowan’s lack of support came down to two key issues — the introduction of a new member to the board and the legal definition of a moratorium.

Monday night, newly appointed Commissioner Conrad Burrell, chosen to fill the seat vacated in McMahan’s appointment to chairman, explained that as a new member he was uncomfortable taking a stand without knowing the issue. At the time, Burrell made no indication of a desire to either abstain or postpone the vote, a move that would have been similar to a request Cowan made in March to delay voting until he could catch up after having missed a month’s worth of meetings due to illness.

Secondly, Commissioner Eddie Madden said that his decision not to second Cowan’s motion was based on the fact that a moratorium must only be used in extreme scenarios.

“The moratorium, folks, is a tool and should be utilized very carefully and selectively when there is an impending threat,” Madden said.

In a letter dated March 21, the owners of Smoke Rise Gun Club — the club slated to open a shooting range in Tilley Creek — promised that they would not close on the property for 75 days. That promise, which essentially sets a close date for the first week in June, does not qualify as an impending threat, Madden said.

Cowan, Burrell and Madden each said that while a moratorium was not passed, the issue of an ordinance his not settled. The three commissioners said they support an ordinance on the condition that it in no way restricts gun owners’ rights. After much discussion focusing on Constitutional rights, environmental regulations and degrees of specificity — and a 15-minute recess for Cowan to tweak the language of his motion, and then more tweaking once the board reconvened — commissioners finally passed a motion to direct the planning board to again pursue a shooting range ordinance. The motion, which Burrell seconded, passed 3 to 2, with McMahan and Vice Chairman Roberta Crawford representing the two votes against.