The Sunday hunting ban has been beat to death for years and years. Each year it does get more notice and more support, which is good. However, each time a house bill or senate bill goes up against the general assembly, it dies. [:@]

Steps to get VA to hunt on Sunday

- Get the VA Farm Bureau to agree (ain't gonna happen. Wilmer Stoneman is vehemently, adamantly, opposed to Sunday hunting. )

- Get all hunters to agree. (ain't gonna happen. There are still a bunch of "old school" hunters who don't want Sunday hunting. )

- Get the private land owners and/or farmers to agree. (again, this ain't gonna happen, because of they might not want hunters on their land on Sunday. Also, because of their support to the VAFB. )

- Somehow, someway, get a strong organization formed with lots and lots of $$$$. (I wish this would happen, but, we all know, hunters already pay enough fees, dues, etc... and our wallets are stretched a little thin these days. [&o])

I have been a staunch supporter of Sunday hunting. I got my name in the papers, I talked to numerous delegates, senators, media personnel, etc... and all I got was the notoriety. What needs to really happen (take NY State for example....) is to get the auto insurance companies involved. NY did that back in the mid 90's. Deer were constantly getting creamed on the highways up in NY. The auto insurance companies met with the NY Farm Bureau and NY's senate and house of delegates, and whoever, and presented facts and figures of all the deer/auto collisions. NY's DEC (like Virginia's VDGIF) also got involved by saying that Sunday hunting will have no adverse affect on wildlife populations - in other words, the woods and fields will not turn into a war zone.* So, anyway, long story short... NY started out very slowly in 1996. They opened Sunday hunting on a trial basis, only a few Sundays on private land. Then in the next year or so, they opened it a little more,then thenext year, and then thenext year, etc... and FINALLY, I believe it was 2000 or 2001, NY State opened up Sunday hunting in full, everywhere, all across the board.

* Honestly... what I think happend... I think some bigwig, some big high profile congressman or senator, or someone like that, either got wrecked/hurt in a deer/auto accident. Or perhaps their high school kid, or maybe their college age kid got wrecked/hurt coming home from college for Thanksgiving in a deer/auto accident. BOOM! Sh** hit the fan big time up in NY and they had to do something instead of denying hunters the opportunity to hunt on Sunday.