Senate overwhelmingly passes Sunday hunting bill

Thursday - 1/26/2012, 4:43pm ET

By BOB LEWIS
AP Political Writer

RICHMOND, Va. - Hunting on private land on Sundays is one step closer to becoming law with passage of a bill by the Virginia Senate.

Sen. Ralph Northam's measure advanced to the House of Delegates on a 29-11 vote over the objection of senators who said it would discourage people from other outdoor pursuits on Sundays, the only day when sportsmen aren't firing guns nearby.

The bill applies only to people who wish to hunt on their own property or the private land of someone else provided they carry with them written permission from its owner.

Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, said his daughters are avid equestrians who love horseback trail rides, but do so only on Sundays when stray bullets aren't a threat. "Bullets don't know where property lines are," said Deeds, whose wooded, mountainous home county is popular with hunters.

Sen. Richard Stuart, a Republican and an avid hunter from Stafford's sprawling suburbs, said the measure would breed resentment from non-hunters afraid to enjoy the outdoors on Sundays.

"People tolerate us hunters and they do it because they have Sundays to enjoy their property," Stuart said. "This is going to ruin hunting as we know it."

Sen. Ralph Smith, R-Roanoke County, was more succinct in his opposition, citing the Fourth Commandment: "Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy."

The sponsor of a Sunday hunting bill that got incorporated into Northam's, Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, said the bill gives working people time to hunt on weekends. He said no state bordering Virginia outlaws Sunday hunting.

Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, scoffed at Deeds' fears of non-hunters being shot. Most hunting injuries were to hunters themselves, many of them resulting from deer hunters falling from perches they've made for themselves high in trees. Injuries to others, he said, are rare.

"I'm not aware of anyone being shot off a horse," he said. "When I think of people getting shot off a horse, I think of old Westerns."

Another opponent, Senate Democratic Leader Richard L. Saslaw, referred to long-ago blue laws that forbade certain businesses on Sundays. When they were repealed, people predicted dire consequences, but none happened, he said

Sunday Hunting Advances

RICHMOND – A Senate committee has approved compromise legislation to allow Virginians to hunt on Sundays.
The Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee voted 11-4 to lift the state’s ban on Sunday hunting. The bill recommended by the panel would permit hunting on Sundays only on private land in Virginia.
The measure now goes to the full Senate for consideration.
“We’ve designated hunting and fishing as a constitutional freedom in Virginia,” said Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, who wrote the “private lands” provision. “How you can restrict hunting one day of the week?”
The committee Thursday considered four Senate bills regarding Sunday hunting.
Three of them would have lifted the Sunday hunting ban entirely. They were SB 151 by Sen. Phillip Puckett, D-Tazewell; SB 464 by Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk; and SB 512 by Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach.
The other bill – SB 173 by Petersen – limited Sunday hunting to private lands with the property owner’s permission.
The panel folded all of the bills into SB 464 and then passed the measure with the “private lands” provision.
The seven Democrats on the committee voted for the bill. Four Republicans voted for the bill, and four voted against it.
“It is time of the Commonwealth of Virginia to make a decision that the government should not be telling us, as property owners, what we can do on our property, and when we can do it,” Northam said.
The Senate has scheduled a vote on SB 464 during the coming week.
Existing state law prohibits hunting on Sundays, declaring it a “rest day for all species of wild bird and wild animal life, except raccoons, which may be hunted until 2:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings.”
Ten other states outlaw hunting on Sundays. They are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and West Virginia.
Four bills before the House of Delegates also would repeal or relax Virginia’s Sunday hunting ban:
• HB 921, by Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Woodbridge, would rescind the Sunday hunting ban entirely.
• HB 989, by Del. Will Morefield, R-North Tazewell, would allow hunting on Sundays between 2 p.m. and sunset.
• HB 369, by Del. Michael Webert, R-Marshall, would allow Sunday hunting only on private lands.
• HB 1002, by Del. David Ramadan, R-South Riding, would allow Sunday hunting only on private lands in Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun and Prince William counties.
All four measures have been referred to the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources.