RE: NYS bow hunting license
ignorance aside,
Combining the courses would be the best option in my opinion. I took the hunters education course (can we stop calling it "the gun course"? its the basic hunter education course needed for any type of license, regardless of your weapon) when i was 12 and then the bow course when i was 14. The bow course covered ALOT of the same material, and I found it unnecessary.
As I recall, the basic hunters education course was 3 evenings. I would suggest adding an optional 4th evening jsut for bow coverage. You get your safety education certificate, and then get the extra bow cert. without all the overlap of two courses.
I'm not saying that education is bad (or killing the sport, ha!), but i just don't see the need for a mandatory safety course for a bow when someone already took the hunters safety course. A bow may be different from a gun, but the safety issues are still the same, or the lecture could be modified in the basic course to also cover bow safety.