You may have heard that there is a law in Aspen, Colorado, that says that you cannot use a catapult to throw items at a building in the city. While it seems clear that you should not do this, it also seems like a very strange thing to have to make a note of. Are the lawmakers really that concerned about siege equipment from the Middle Ages being used in modern America?

The answer becomes a bit more clear if you look into the entire law. It covers a whole host of things that cannot be done to send projectiles toward buildings. For example, it makes it illegal to shoot firearms at a building or to throw rocks or snowballs. It also says that people cannot shoot bows at buildings or do other such things.

The law also goes beyond that to offer protection to cars, public spaces and people. This is just a basic law covering everything that could be done to send a projectile at a person, at a building or at another place where people could be.

In that sense, the law does not seem that strange or weird at all, despite getting some press to the contrary. It is a bit odd, though, that the lawmakers felt compelled to put catapults into the mix. Why are they even mentioned along with things that are far more common, such as guns? One can only assume that the lawmakers were covering all of their bases, but that does stand out.

In order to properly set up a criminal defense if you are accused of a crime, you need to know all of the local laws, even those that seem surprising.

Source: DumbLaws, "Full Text of the Law" accessed Jan. 13, 2015