REPEALING SUNDAY HUNTING PROHIBITION IN PENNSYLVANIA - LETS GET THIS DONE

The moment that we have all be asking for is here.  Senator Dan Laughlin has made good on his commitment to advance legislation to get the hunting on Sunday prohibition lifted once and for all here in Pennsylvania. 

The memo reads: 

From: Senator Daniel Laughlin

To: All Senate members

Subject: Repealing Sunday Hunting Prohibition in Pennsylvania

 

In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation that would completely remove the prohibition on Sundays available for hunting and trapping.  Currently, the law dictates which Sundays are open to hunting, and in certain cases, which species. This legislation would change that and would leave all wildlife management decisions to the Game Commission.

Over the past 40 years, hunting license sales have been steadily declining across the nation.  Countless surveys and research have been conducted in an attempt to determine the cause of this decline.  Over and over, the number one answer to why people quit hunting is ‘lack of time’. 

 

Act 107 of 2019 authorized the Game Commission to implement three Sundays for hunting. These three days were extremely successful and exceptionally safe. The Game Commission reported no hunting-related shooting incidents on any of those days. Additionally, implementing the three Sundays contributed to the increase of 25,152 licenses sold in the previous year. The additional opportunities that are available to hunters is paying huge dividends. 

 

By completely removing the prohibition on Sunday hunting, it will give the needed latitude to the Game Commission to increase hunting and trapping opportunities. 

Please join me in supporting this important legislation.

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN?  WHAT YOU CAN DO?

The first step is to get the members of the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee to sign on and co-sponsor this legislation.  Here is every member of the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee.  

Contact them: Ask them to sign, endorse and co-sponsor the Repealing Sunday Hunting Prohibition in Pennsylvania legislation.  Post up who you contact and their responses.  

Let’s get this done.  

Link to:

Repealing Sunday Hunting Prohibition in Pennsylvania 

https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20210&cosponId=35151

Senate Game and Fisheries Committee members/names/contact

https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/cteeInfo/Index.cfm?Code=11&CteeBody=S

ABC 27/WHTM

Pa. hunting advocates push to expand Sunday hunting

Currently, the legislature has control over Sunday hunting. Game Commission should have total authority.

HUNTERS UNITED FOR SUNDAY HUNTING COMMENT TO PA GAME COMMISSION, JAN 23, 2021

 

Senate Bill 147 signed and made legal by the November 27, 2019, PA Act. 107

Statement to PA Game Commissioners, January 23, 2021

Executive Director Burhans, Deputy Executive Directors Grohol and Palmer, Commissioners, and Staff:

Be advised that the mission to bring full regulatory authority to the PA Game Commission is alive and well.  As the executive director of Hunters United for Sunday Hunting thanks for the opportunity to submit this letter as part of the PA Game Commission January 2021 public meeting.  Many of my comments are not going to be new but are still valid and pertinent to the current Sunday hunting situation that you as commissioners are managing. 

As commissioners, you are faced with the challenging decision of how to best manage the three Sundays of hunting opportunity for the upcoming 2020-2021 hunting and trapping season.  Please take comfort in the fact that we know you are working to do the best you can under the guidelines placed upon you by our legislators.  

As you well know. The fight to bring hunting on Sunday has never been about a particular species or season. It is not about deer, it is not about specific seasons, it is not about this firearm or the other. It is about the increased opportunity based on your agency's resource-first model and the North American Model of Wildlife Management.

It is encouraging that initial reports indicate that you as commissioners and an agency are looking to be as inclusive as possible for huntable species in the upcoming season.  This will allow hunters the opportunity to maximize their time afield for both small and big game animals.  As previously mentioned in last January’s statement, if there is a biological reason certain species can’t support additional hunting, we simply ask that we be educated on that scientific reason so we as hunter-conservationists understand. The conservation and hunting community supports the wildlife management decisions made by this agency. 

In closing as one of the leading organizations for Sunday hunting, Hunters United for Sunday Hunting asks that you maximize these three Sundays by allowing as much hunting opportunity as is biologically permitted. 

I also ask that you welcome Hunter Nation and Hunt The Vote for joining the conference of nearly 25 organizations that are working on the removal of the prohibition of Sunday hunting in PA Title 34 Game Law and transfer full regulatory control to your agency to allow and decide what is best for Sunday hunting.

Thanks for your time;

Sincerely; 

Kevin B. Askew

Executive Director, Hunters United for Sunday Hunting