RE: Crossbows introduced for regular archery season in PA
I see where you're coming from, but it's not like that.
The act of drawing a bow, in the presence of game, and then holding that bow and positioning the sights under that muscle stress, releasing the arrow and follow through makes any bow a different tool than a crossgun.
The crossgun is pre-drawn, storing the energy at the leisure of the shooter. The aiming is not affected by any muscular stress of holding the stored energy. Follow through is minimal, as the short bolt leaves the device many times faster than a bow with double the draw length.
The person simply aims and fires.
A compound is more efficient than a recurve, but it is still a bow.
A crossgun is a mechanized gun, without the aid of explosive propellant, using stored energy in it's place.
It is still a gun. You put it to your shoulder, aim from two fixed sighting points, and pull the trigger.
It's a gun.