The general belief in AZ is that you cannot shoot within 1/4 mile of an "occupied structure" without permission of the owner. This is a bit of a misunderstanding.
As far as actual statutes:
ARS 13-3101 Defines any house as an occupied structure whether someone is home or not.
ARS 13-3107 makes it is a felony to discharge a weapon within a municipality unless you are more than 1/4 mile from an "occupied structure" with no mention of permission (or exception for your own house explicitly listed). It also reserves the right of localities to prohibit hunting within a quarter mile of an occupied structured (this provision is also repeated in ARS 13-3108 as an exception to the state preemption law). We have a couple areas open to "urban shotgun" hunting in the Phoenix are, so I suspect the proper reading of the law is felony for non-hunting related shooting in municipalities and the stricter of local ordnances (which can be up to misdemeanors) or hunting regs (which can be up to felony level) for hunting-related shooting.
Game regulations also contain a 1/4 mi provision which is not restricted to municipalities, but has a "permission of owner" exception. This applies only to hunting and not to target shooting.
Mike
PS. Flyboy, I own two 34 acre parcels on Mt Graham and a 36 acre parcel near Peeple's Valley. I've done a lot of research and would be happy to respond to any questions if you want to PM me. A couple things to look out for: 1. You can get a big property tax break if you let someone else graze your land but the requirements for what constitutes a proper grazing lease varies greatly by county to country. I'm able to meet these requirements in Yavapi Country but not Graham County with the same status as open range. 2. surface rights were severed from subsurface rights statewide long long ago and I know of no one who owns their own subsurface rights. It does not matter, because unlike other states, surface rights are the "dominant estate" in AZ.
