RSB

I have to admit that I had no idea that the disabled xbow permitregs had been changed from may to shall. That is huge! I cant help but recall the time when I was a county rep for UBP and was working with the Pa Sportsmen for the disabled putting on wheelchair accessable 3-D shoots when the first crossbow for disableds law was enacted. PFSTD was a primary mover and shaker in that efffort. I remember then having some lively exchanges with Harry Miller who was president of PFSTD at the time. I expressed my concerns that it would be abused and he said "better that the occasional jerk abuses the permit rather than a truly disabled guy be refused a chance to hunt archery season because he cant pull a bow any more. I eventually agreed and became a supporter for that original law. Originally the law as promoted by PFSTD and rep Godschall was intended for people who REALLY had no way to use a vertical bow. We certainly came a long way from there! It looks like my original fears have already come to pass! I knew I was seeing guys with xbows who looked perfectly healthy but as someonewho now hasa serious disability that is not always readily apparent to strangers, I've been ignoring it. I also had no idea that we had 63,000 permits already on the books. Thats a real eye opener!

As you said, add that to the SRA's where anyone can use one and maybe your point about the battle having been lost already holds at least some water. I still think it was handled very poorly. At the very least, the vote in the face of the opposition was still a display of apathy and arogancetowardinput from their funding constituents at a time when that ought to be something very important to the BOC members.


As for the studies examining the combining of the agencies not being cost effective, I'm still skeptical.Although your comment about any bureaucracy getting bigger is not lost on me

As for the commisioner who owns a sporting goods store and his vote, we're 100% apart on that one. IMHO,he should have abstained. I live in an SRA crossbow area and do much of my equipment business around here but I also hunt well outside of that area as well. I'd bet that at least some of his potential crossbow customers will be hunting outside of SRA's this year and I'd bet he WILL sell more crossbows now that full inclusion is a reality.

At the very least, a good conscientous public official should never take part in a decision where they stand to reap any possible financial reward as a result of that decision. I doubt this will ever come to pass, but hisneglecting to abstain and his vote in favor strikes me as possible reasonable cause for a court challenge to the decision. That certainly wouldn't be good for anyone except the lawyers now would it?