The difference is tied up into revenue generating. As my brother-in-law...a high ranking LEO (chief) in a major DFW suburb put it "we need the people to brake petty laws so we can generate money"

So its back to playing in other peoples ballpark. Speeding, not wearing seat belt, tags/registration, insurance , rolling thru a light at 2am with nobody around for miles etc.... you have to do those things right as you are playing by rules you cannot control. There is no difference than shooting a bird off your parked trucks tailgate and a chair 2ft away....but your playing in others playground.

Sitting on the tailgate of a parked truck while shooting is illegal?

That's stupid. It provides no benefit, and I don't do it because it provides no benefit. But that's a stupid rule.

Can't shoot off the tailgate of a Mule or Ranger either!

There are plenty of benefits. The beer cooler is 200 pounds plus. Leave it in the bed, sit on the gate. High speed low drag!

Can't answer this question without defining what a motor-driven vehicle is. Its probably self-evident as they would have said "moving" vehicle if they intended the law to be a limited to non-stationary vehicles. As an aside, if you remove the motor you are no longer a motor driven vehicle. Problem solved! Also, it appears from this section of the law that you could hunt dove from a tricycle. As far as parking across from where you hunt, I don't think that is concentrating birds as they have the option to move in any direction. They are not limited to moving towards you.

My new legal setup.

My opinion, for what little it's worth, on laws like this is that they give the warden latitude to write a ticket if someone is being an a-hole. I think many laws, especially game laws, are both very specific, "From a motor driven vehicle," and vague, as in this discussion, so as to provide the officer that latitude. As far as stationary vs. non-stationary, that's clarified in the paraplegic/amputee clause. Only they may hunt from a non-stationary motor driven vehicle. Just my take on it.

As for the "pop up, shoot, sit back down on the tailgate," scenario. If you're sitting in a deer stand with a rifle are you not hunting until you pull the trigger? It could be argued that until I saw those dove fly over I was just bird watching with a shotgun in my lap. Then I decided to hunt, so I stood up.

edited: Just to change "your" to "you're."

The rub for me on this law, like the baiting law, is that TPWD could easily clarify the law to take out almost all of the interpretation. It would be very simple to amend the law to specify that the definition of hunting from a vehicle does not include the vehicle being parked at the edge of the field with no one in the cab. Personally, I don't like my truck being parked near where I'm hunting, but the law still needs to be tightened up for people who do like to sit on their tailgates while hunting. I see nothing wrong with that.

It's a federal law. Pretty much everything migratory is federal and are part of an old multi nation treaty.

Based on my experience dealing with the feds, that would explain the foundation of the badly worded law. However I still believe the definition could be cleared up by the feds very easily if they would just do it. I absolutely understand the intent behind the law, but I don't think that intent includes sitting on the tailgate of an unoccupied truck on the edge of a sunflower field.
I'm obviously a big LE supporter, but I've also been in the business long enough to know there are just some officers who don't need that much interpretation ability.

What if I jump up in the air when I shot a volley