Tracking Virginia’s General Assembly
since 2007.
SB365: Turkeys; localities to prohibit hunting with rifle.
Chief Patron
Sen.
John Watkins (R-10)
John Watkins
(R-10)
Served: 1998–
Progress
| Introduced | |
| Passed Committee | |
| Passed House | |
| Passed Senate | |
| Signed by Governor | |
| Became Law |
Status
01/08/2008: In Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee
Summary
Hunting turkeys. Authorizes localities to prohibit the hunting of turkeys with a rifle. The penalty for violation of the local ordinance is a Class 4 misdemeanor.
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Poll Results
5 votes
Tags
Bill Text
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Comments
Why do you want to do this to me?
DGIF is supposed to be in charge of hunting regulations in Virginia. They have actual experts who know what they are talking about. Every time you create more of these exceptions where counties can decide what the hunting regulations are, you are handing off decisions from people who know what they are talking about to a lot of people who know nothing about hunting. The result is that a certain list of counties will adopt any rules they possibly can to prevent hunting, because those counties have a majority on their BoS that are knee-jerk anti-hunting. This option of banning turkey hunting will not be exercised in a measured, intelligent way. It's going to be classic knee-jerk stuff.
The Constitution of Virginia grants us as individuals the right to hunt and fish. Thus the rights of even a minority of hunters in an County that is majority anti-hunting are intended to be protected. But every time you create another one of these optional exceptions, you are dismantling that Constitutional right. Keep the decisions in the hands of DGIF, which has done a great job of weighing safety, ecology and hunters rights in a reasonable way.