NEW61375

Is this the best you have? Even if Sunday hunting were made legal it would still be up to the landowner to participate. Companies and farmers who lease land could easily make rules prohibiting Sunday hunting on their properties. Meaning they would have a choice. Which is exactly what they and other landowners should have.

The fact of the matter was this bill had overwhelming support in the senate as evidenced by the 29-11 vote but was killed by a house sub-committee by a vote of 4-3. Interestingly enough the 4 delegates voting nay seemed to listen more to special interest groups like the VAHDA and the Farm Bureau. Wanna know why that's interesting? Because these same guys voted to extend Bear chase seasons this very year which by the way is legal on Sunday.

As a matter of fact there are several chase seasons open to hound hunters on Sunday already. In essence the strongest opposition to Sunday hunting in VA is the VAHDA which is made up of hound hunters who are the ONLY hunters who can legally hunt on Sunday already. Not only can they hunt/chase on Sunday they can do it on my property and can come onto my property to retrieve their hounds. Sounds fair right, taking my property rights away and giving them to someone else who has no claim to the land. See welfare.

The main charge was lead by Delegate Lee Ware and I encourage anyone in VA to contact his office and Edmunds, Fariss, and Wrights office as well(the other nay voters). 44 states allow Sunday hunting and 39 have no restrictions. It is estimated that Sunday hunting would create close to 3000 jobs and put nearly 300 million dollars into VA economy not to mention provide another avenue to help control the VA deer herd. Lets not forget about all the parents out there who work so much they can hardly get out to hunt or take their kids hunting for that matter. Think that extra day would help them and get more youngsters involved? How about our active duty service men and women? VA has a giant active duty population many of whom already have very limited time to enjoy hunting season or introduce their young ones to hunting due to deployments and work. Think they would like an extra day?

The arguments about days of rest, and non-hunter safety can be so easily picked apart and dismissed it's barely worth mentioning but I will be happy to do so if anyone would like to discuss those topics.

The VAHDA uses scare tactics that the sky is falling for dog hunting if Sunday hunting is passed. Then they fail to provide any evidence of a relation between the two. It is a fact that hound hunting in VA is and has been under attack for years now and we don't even have Sunday hunting. The VAHDA is only causing a divide between hound hunters and their potential allies(the rest of us) and don't be fooled they are the ones who's preferred method will need the most support in the future. Ever wonder when the first laws were put into place in regards to restricting hound hunting? How about 1876...yeah you read that right. Here's a good article Hokieman, enlighten yourself because they will be coming after dog hunting regardless of Sunday hunting:

http://www.northamericanwhitetail.com/2010/09/22/deermanagement_naw_debate_1009/


Another surprising bit of info to me was one of the delegates that voted against it was Matt Fariss and when I went to his home page to learn more about him under the tab titled "Issues" he had this as his stance on Property Rights:

"Property Rights-
A crucial element of right to the pursuit of happiness so eloquently espoused by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, is the right to property. Matt understands this fact and there will be no more ardent defender of property rights in the House of Delegates. He understands the challenges and frustrations that come when government attempts to regulate how property owners utilize their property, and he will work to remove power from regulating bureaucracies and return it back to the people and their elected representatives. Matt will fight against legislation that restricts the rights of property owners."

Yeah I laughed too. Thanks Matt for ardently defending my rights as a landowner. Remember all we needed was 1 vote.

The hound hunters got to keep Sunday hunting/chasing all to themselves again this year largely due to the VAHDA propaganda and having a couple of delegates in line. I encourage any VA hunters out there to e-mail these legislators throughout the next year and ask them to stand behind their stated principles instead of appeasing special interest groups such as the VAHDA. Also join http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/vasundayhunting4all/ on FB and see the website:

http://www.virginiasundayhunting.org/

It's just a matter of time VA.

http://www.seriousbirdhunting.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Sunday_hunting_restrictions_map_NRA.jpg

Also I apologize if these links are already up here, I havent been on in a while.