AR-News: Sportsmen seek hunting guarantees

[jim robertson]

Sportsmen seek hunting guarantees
Out & About


Don Sapatkin



Sportsmen are flexing their political muscle around the country, changing 
laws in state after state to protect against what they see as threats to 
their heritage.

In Pennsylvania, for example -- second to Texas in total licensed hunters -- 
sportsmen have hardly been under siege. Yet even there, the state 
Constitution could soon carry a new guarantee:

"Right of the people to hunt and fish."

Exactly what that would mean is unclear. But the broader trend is quite 
clear: Eleven states recognize citizens' right to hunt, fish or trap, mostly 
through laws or constitutional changes approved in the last few years.

Six have begun the amendment process, the National Conference of State 
Legislatures said. No one is even tracking legislation that has not yet come 
up for a vote.

Many of the changes are attempts to enshrine in law control over practices 
that sportsmen consider part of their tradition and that animal-rights 
forces say are immoral.

full story:
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=030704&ID=s1495143&cat=section.Hunting_and_fishing

Philadelphia Inquirer At a glance
Right to hunt
The right to hunt, fish or trap is explicitly declared in the following 
states:


By the constitution: Alabama, California, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode 
Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin.

By statute: Florida, Georgia, Louisiana.

Constitutional amendments in process: Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, New York, 
Pennsylvania, Tennessee.
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures

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