ORIGINAL: quiksilver
They just passed the same garbage in PA. Our law enforcement officials are licking their wounds, but the hunters seem to be thrilled. I'll never understand how any bowhunter could view this as a good thing.
I wish I knew what a lot of you guys are afraid of. I can understand if you live in an area with native timberwolves and grizzlies, but most of these states passing this retarded law are out east, where the scariest animal in the woods is a 35 pound coyote, or your neighbor's stray cat. LOL
Crikey, you're a 200 pound grown man with a bow and a quiver full of razor-tipped arrows. You have a knife on your side, a cell phone in your pocket and you're wearing camo and combat boots. Newsflash guys: if you're afraid of the boogie man, you'll still be afraid of the boogie man even if you have your poaching pistol in your pocket.
I can't wait to hear everybody start crying when your local poacher scumball gets a concealed carry permit and starts taking his "pistol" to the woods with him (because he's afraid of the boogie man too) - and cracks a 140 class buck at 75 yards with his .223 Encore. Uh oh.
The devil, as with everything, is always in the details. If you allow any type of handgun in the woods during bow season, without restricting the barrel length, or disallowing scoped handguns, you're essentially giving your local scumballs carte blanche to carry a precision weapon into the archery stand. That's the price you pay, though, when you blindly clamor for the right to concealed carry.
Oh, I know, poachers will be poachers. But before this law was passed, a WCO could slam anyone with a fine who was bowhunting with a firearm (which made the poacher a criminal). Now, that same WCO catches that same scumball, under the same circumstances, and all the sudden, he's a law-abiding citizen.
Congratulations guys, you just took the teeth right out of your own law enforcement, andmade it easier on the criminal to do what he does best.
Again, if you have cougars, grizzly bears or t-wolves in your woods, then this all doesn't apply to you. You have a legitimate reason to protect yourself, IMO.
Just my .02