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Maloney: Resolution to study why decline in hunting licenses issued in PA

2K views 14 replies 11 participants last post by  Vonfoust 
#1 ·
HCO2695 By Maloney. Resolution directing the Pennsylvania Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to study the reasoning behind the decline in the number of hunting licenses issued in Pennsylvania in recent years.



* October 11, 2019 02:04 PM

* Rep. David M. Maloney, Sr.

* A Study of the Decline in the Number of Hunting Licenses Issued in

* Pennsylvania

* In the near future, I plan to introduce a resolution directing the

* Pennsylvania Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to study the

* reasoning behind the decline in the number of hunting licenses issued

* in Pennsylvania in recent years.

*

* In the fiscal year 2013-14 the Pennsylvania Game Commission issued

* 952,989 hunting licenses, declining to just 867,853 this fiscal year,

* with an anticipated reduction of over 7,000 licenses in 2019-20. This

* decline may be a result of various factors, including but not limited

* to, a lack of educational opportunities for young people to learn

* hunting and gun safety, or an absence of education regarding the

* importance of game management throughout the Commonwealth. There is a

* need for definitive information in order for the General Assembly to

* draft and enact comprehensive legislation to reverse this continuing

* decline.

*

* This resolution would provide the General Assembly with a knowledge

* base to develop substantial legislation in order to preserve the

* Commonwealth's proud hunting tradition.

https://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDocs/Legis/CSM/DisplayMemos.cfm?*****=20190&Chamber=H&MemberID=1226
 
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#3 ·
I'm sorry but half these legislators can't find they're arse with both hands. They know how to pander though. " draft and enact comprehensive legislation to reverse this continuing decline"

It sounds good but we all know the decline will continue. No amount of money for studies will reverse anything. Waste of funding. Times change and culture evolves. Unfortunately here on the east coast hunting culture will fade faster than more remote states. A rapidly changing societal outlook of hunting is the main culprit. Most people I know under thirty five years of age think I'm a barbarian because I hunt. No need to kill a deer. Go to the grocery store. What kind of legislation can reverse that thinking?
 
#5 ·
Established and nationally-respected research entities have done numerous studies on the causes and factors involved in the decline of hunting all across the nation.

Someone please try to explain how another study by the state legislature will change anything, or lead to some magic reversal?
 
#6 ·
WAIT !!!! You mean that a Saturday Rifle Deer opener and adding 3 Sundays to the books won't reverse the decline ?????????


Then why the he** did they pass the Saturday opener ?
And why the He** allow Sunday hunting for all species ?

Majority of buyers said no to both and yet here we are !


Too many people dont want to try and hunt, they just want to GET and the more they GET the more they want !
 
#11 · (Edited)
#13 ·
In the year 2000, PA had 12.0 million residents, and in 2018 it had 12.8 million. A 6-7% population increase. Pick a random state, I picked SC as one of my daughters now works there, they went from 4 million residents in 2000 to over 5 million in 2018, more than a 20% population increase.


So while the total number of belly buttons in PA went up slightly, it did not keep pace with the USA, which saw roughly 15% population increase since 2000.


So overall the headcount of people in PA has not kept pace. Younger people are leaving the region for other regions with more job opportunities. As the population does not keep up with the world, and the demographics of society changes, it does not take a government funded study to guess that the number of hunting licenses sold declines.


And my personal experiences don't point to it being some kind of anti-hunting or liberal agenda to wipe out hunting. All the people I know socially or at work that do not hunt do not have any issues with me doing it. In fact a lot of people look forward to some of us getting a few deer so they can have some jerky.


Bottom line is that in order to become proficient at hunting, gain enough skills, takes a lot of time. In today's world, people in general and the young in particular are always pressed for time. This goes hand in hand with people up in arms about the Saturday opener, how it will kill traditions. Hunting is no longer the entire gang going to deer camp on Friday and staying five or six days. Hunting is now more of a weekend, recreational activity for a large portion of hunters due to the time constraints of modern society.


So you need to make hunting more attractive for the Millenials and Gen X crowd. Allow high-tech crossbows. Have Sunday hunting (you can drink and gamble on Sundays). My gosh, get your heads out of the 1800s and allow the AR platform (properly limited in magazine capacity like all other actions) for big game hunting. And the irony is, the people who fight these things the most are the self-proclaimed hard-core hunting traditionalists. But yet I will wager anyone the beverage of their choice that most of these people clinging to the laws and regulations of the 1980s all drive fuel-injected vehicles and have cable TV. So much for their "tradition" of engines with carburetors or TV antennas on their homes.



Eventually it will bottom out and then there will be an uptick in sales. That will happen over the next 10-15 years as more of the Old Guard passes on to the Great Gamelands in the Sky, and we get more open, progressive minds involved in the policy making.
 
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#14 ·
So you need to make hunting more attractive for the Millenials and Gen X crowd. Allow high-tech crossbows. Have Sunday hunting (you can drink and gamble on Sundays). My gosh, get your heads out of the 1800s and allow the AR platform (properly limited in magazine capacity like all other actions) for big game hunting. And the irony is, the people who fight these things the most are the self-proclaimed hard-core hunting traditionalists. But yet I will wager anyone the beverage of their choice that most of these people clinging to the laws and regulations of the 1980s all drive fuel-injected vehicles and have cable TV. So much for their "tradition" of engines with carburetors or TV antennas on their homes.

Yeah........How's that working out? It's been 10 years since we allowed x-bows in general archery. We sell 100K license less than we did in 2009. The milennials and GenX'ers. They were in their late teens to late thirties. They are now late twenties and GenX'rs are pushing 50. There ain't no uptick.

Parents today enroll their kids in every activity under the sun. Hunting isn't THE thing to do, it' something to squeeze in between youth travel soccer, basketball, swim lessons, travel baseball, ad infinitum. Funny, boomers had no problem finding time OR resources to pursue hunting. But the entitlement crowd wants it laid out for them, like everything else.

My son is 19. He learned that if he wanted to play baseball and soccer there were going to be certain sacrifices. He didn't demand someone else accommodate HIS schedule. He knew baseball would eat into turkey hunting and trout fishing. Soccer would take up some of archery season.

Your analogy of fuel injection vs carburetors is flawed. Fuel injection wasn't developed to add more drivers to the road. It was developed as a more efficient method of delivering fuel to an engine.

BTW, I am in full favor of Sunday hunting and AR platforms. The problem with the Sunday hunting, is , it's driven by the "we're too busy crowd". See above. How in the h#ll did we ever find time to hunt 20, 30, 40 years ago. When standard vacation was one maybe two weeks.

Sunday hunting because the PGC should determine hunting seasons based on best resource management practice? I'm all in. Sunday hunting because you're too darn busy? Sorry. Your hectic schedule is just that. Yours. Make concessions.
 
#15 ·
Parents today sign their kid up for everything under the sun because if you let your kid wander the woods unsupervised like we did as youngsters they get arrested for child endangerment. It's unfortunate but that is where society is.

Therefore, parents sign the kid up for regulated and organized activities. These most often utilize Saturdays and not Sundays. Are there exceptions? Yes, but as a general rule the organized activities whether they be through school or outside of school utilize Saturdays.
 
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