Officials are issuing a reminder about gun safety following a close call where a stray bullet entered a family’s car while travelling along a forest service road outside of Mission, B.C. 

In a press release Friday, Mission RCMP said a family of four was driving near Davis Lake when they heard gunshots. 

The father then heard a noise inside the vehicle, and saw a bullet spinning around inside the cup holder of one of his children’s car seats, according to RCMP. 

Police say it appears the bullet entered through an open window or the open sunroof. 

“This was a very close call for this family, this could have happened to anyone,” said Cst. Paul Gill with Mission RCMP.  

Gill said a suspect has not been identified, but noted police are regularly called to the Mission backcountry due to people illegally and unsafely discharging firearms.

He said in cases where Mission RCMP have found people illegally shooting in the background, the offenders were nearly always a group of men from elsewhere in the Lower Mainland, usually from Surrey. 

He said even for those with gun licenses, no practice or target shooting is allowed within 400 meters of any of the forest service roads in the area. 

“Unless you are doing some significant off-roading, any areas you can reach by normal vehicle are closed to shooting,” said Gill. 

He said while shooting for hunting may be allowed within these areas, police often encounter people shooting for other purposes. 

“They may think they’re shooting in a safe direction without realizing there’s a hiking trail or a dirt bike trail just on the other side of where they are set up, which creates an incredibly dangerous situation,” he said. 

“They don’t realize how active our forest service roads are and how far their bullets can go.”

Conservation officer Jeremy Pauls, based in Mission, says the problem is especially common along forest service roads, where different groups use the area at the same time.

“You’ve got a lot of people hiking and camping, and also there’s a lot of people coming from the Lower Mainland that want to go shoot their guns,” Pauls said. “A lot of them don’t realize those areas are closed to target shooting.”

He says that mix of users creates a “perfect storm” of safety risks.

Mission RCMP are asking anyone who sees someone shooting within the vicinity of a forest service road to move a safe distance and then call 911. 

With spring weather arriving, police officers and conservation officers say they will be increasing patrols in the backcountry.