Think 2009 hunt boost

Michael A. Sawyers

Before you know it, January will be here and people such as Wendell Beitzel, George Edwards, Kevin Kelly and LeRoy Myers will be getting reacquainted with Interstate 68 and 70 as they drive back and forth to the hallowed, law-making halls of the Maryland General Assembly.

This is a gentle reminder to those three elected delegates and one elected senator that the deer hunters in the two far western counties want to be treated as nicely as the deer hunters in Washington, Dorchester, St. Mary’s, Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties.

In all of those counties, bow hunters may go after deer on five Sundays this year, those being Oct. 12, Oct. 19, Oct. 26 and Nov. 2 and Nov. 9.

Here in Allegany and here in Garrett, we get one Sunday, that being Nov. 2.

Boogers to that.

Here in Almost Maryland we work just as hard as the folks in the rest of the state, maybe harder. We have just as many folks whose one day off is Sunday. We have just as many high school and college students whose one day off from classes, part-time jobs and extracurricular activities is Sunday.

We would like to go bowhunting for deer on five Sundays too.

After all, legalized Sunday hunting for deer in Maryland only takes place on private lands, where the owners have control of who does or who does not legally traipse. If a certain landowner doesn’t want Sunday hunting, he simply tells those who hunt there on other days to stay away on that particular day of the week.

We made an editorial request during the last General Assembly, asking to be included in the bill that opened more Sunday hunting doors in the other counties. Beitzel said he wanted more time to test the waters in the part of the state he represents, but would consider asking that Allegany and Garrett be given those additional Sundays for bow hunting.

Cool.

We know now that after a number of years of having one Sunday for bowhunting and one Sunday for firearm hunting of deer in Garrett and Allegany on private lands that it has not created a Western Maryland Armageddon. The forces of good and evil have not done battle because somebody applied an arrow or a bullet to a buck on one of those two days.

I continue to advocate that all legal hunting for all legal species should be allowed on Sundays and that includes on public lands. However, I will settle for now to simply be treated as well as those in Washington, Dorchester, et al that get five Sunday bow hunts.

Can anybody out there name a form of recreation other than hunting that is banned on Sundays?

Didn’t think so.

For those of you who somehow make a connection between hunting on Sundays and religion, prohibiting the former because of the latter, consider this.

A state doesn’t get any more religious than Utah.

In Utah, the spiritual arms of the Mormon religion reach out into everyday life, including government.

Yet, in Utah, it is quite acceptable to toe tag a mule deer or swing your scattergun on a chukar or a ring-neck on a Sunday.

While I was a college student in the Beehive State, I was able to kill some mule deer, including a pretty nice buck that fell on a Sunday near Price.

We live, you and I, smack dab in the middle of the few Atlantic states that still have their political thumbs pushing down on Sunday hunters.

Even if it is a slow process, we need to continue to work to change that situation, adding Sundays to our hunting calendar as time goes by.

Let’s keep plugging away. And, let’s be grateful that we have state representatives who are willing to give us the same consideration that other Maryland hunters have gotten.

Perhaps a pre-filed bill to this end would be in order.

You can find all the contact information you need for your particular state representative at http://www.mlis.state.md.us/.

Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.