Hello gents,

I'm a grad student working on a paper reviewing Prop 6 that just passed that made hunting, fishing, and wildlife harvesting a constitutional right for Texas citizens. My paper discusses why the amendment was a step in the right direction (we were the 19th state to do this, go us!) and why it is necessary to protect our right to hunt from possible future anti-hunting legislation being passed by animal rights groups or anti-hunting activists. I would like to do a state comparison with Texas and a state where legislation has been proposed or already been passed that limits hunting or fishing or makes it generally more difficult to do so. I, however, am relatively new to hunting, and certainly never been hunting out of state, so I'm hoping you guys might have a better idea of what states have limited hunting rights, or could point me in the right direction to any anti-hunting movements that have gained traction. Keep in mind any gun control legislation that passed that also would make it more difficult to hunt would also apply. Thanks for any advice!

The point I was thinking of making, you touched on at the very end, be sure to include the hunting and gun control! As far as going out of state I have not, so I cannot help there... Good luck!

My opinion the proposition is a extra step in reserving our right to bear arms, and I think you are saying that in your post, just wanted to make that clear.

California.

When you break it down, the effort really boils down to protecting the desire of people to kill and harvest wild animals. It does nothing to protect methods, since some methods have already been made illegal, surprisingly, by deer hunters themselves. Using dogs to hunt deer is a perfect example. And if we continue to put more emphasis on growing deer, rather than ensuring our methods are true, free chased- based, who is to say the non-hunting majority does not one day demand we just grow and butcher deer as we do cows today. After all, is waiting for a deer to show up and eat from a feeder much different than waiting for a cow to come to a trough? As a local outdoor radio show in the Houston area pointed out in his show, such efforts may one day be used against us.

There is little doubt, at least in my mind, that the day is coming when people will ask why "hunt" has disappeared from hunting.

Maine has several hunting restrictions and purposed laws on hunting coyotes. A few states have restrictions on hunting on Sundays. The use of surpressed firearms while hunting (legal in 30 plus states). The use of dogs while hunting bears & mt. lions. Age restrictions on youth to hunt. Extreme fees for out of state hunters. Requirement on minium use of rifle handgun calibers.

I think the ban on mountain lion hunting in California made everyone worried.

+1 for California. I believe they are also making a move to outlaw hunting contests (i.e. for coyotes or other predators).

At one point it was looking like we might end up in NY, and I read up on the laws there and thought they were awfully restrictive compared to TX.