In January, Rep. Bo Eaton (D) proposed some changes to Mississippi’s hunting season that I thought were in order. Though I think that legislators having statutory authority to set deer seasons limits and methods is stupid, Eaton’s changes were some that needed to be made. Though some thought the bill smacked of wasting time, the MDWFP supported the bill and most hunters did too, save for a few diehard one issue folks.
A little over a month later, Rep. Tommy Gollott (R) ill-advisedly pocket vetoed 1282.
Bobby Cleveland with the Clarion Ledger now reports that (under the poetic heading of “be careful what you ask for) Eaton has inexplicably asked for an AG Jim Hood’s opinion about whether or not bow hunters should be allowed to hunt with bows during regular gun season. And guess what . . . they said no. This overturns decades of generally accepted precedent that says that primitive weapons hunters could use less effective weapons during gun season.
With an AG opinion now published (written obviously by someone who doesn’t know the difference between a crossbow and a bowtie), MDWFP may be over a barrel in having to enforce bow hunters from not using bows during gun season in 2010-2011.
Parsing the law like this may lead to questions like . . . Can you hunt deer without using dogs during deer season that allows dogs?
This sort of abject stupidity from all sides should once and for all prove that the legislature (and now the AG)should divorce themselves from setting hunting seasons and limits/methods and leave that to the pros at MDWFP.
Or to put it another way to my friends at the Legislature, STOP MESSING WITH DEER SEASON. You suck at it.
Magnolia Tribune
