Alabama Crossbow Legalization

[striper]

Woody has asked me to keep our Forum abreast of developments in the controversy over legalizing crossbows in Alabama. I have attached the latest available information as reported by the Birmingham News Sports Editor Mike Bolton This was in yesterday's News. Striper

Crossbow use will probably get committee's OK
Sunday, August 29, 2004
If you are following the saga of the legalization of crossbows and turkey decoys, mark your calendars for Sept. 9. That's D-Day.
The two surprising proposals made by the Conservation Advisory Board at its May 22 meeting in Gulf Shores now rest in the hands of the Legislative Review Committee. That committee meets Sept. 9 in Montgomery.

The committee has several options, including putting a rubber stamp on what the advisory board recommended, modifying the proposals or just ignoring them. Should the latter happen, the proposals would go to Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Commissioner Barnett Lawley, who has already said he would approve both.


Opponents of both proposals are still trying to derail them. Some are calling for the Legislative Review Committee to put both proposals on hold for a year. Others are calling for a compromise allowing crossbows only in gun season. Others are looking for a compromise keeping the first three weeks of bow season crossbow-free.

No matter what happens, there are going to be a number of angry people.

Bow hunters opposing crossbow use contend that no one in the world recognizes crossbows as archery equipment, thus they should not be allowed in archery season. They also say they have fought for 30 years to have four weeks of archery-only season.

On the other side, hundreds of hunters have already purchased crossbows, believing the legalization is a done deal. Should crossbows not become legal, those people will have expensive, useless toys.

Should the Legislative Review Committee nix the crossbow proposal, the biggest loser would be Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. It has already published the 2004-2005 seasons and regulations handbook. That guide states that crossbows are legal. If the proposal gets put on hold for a year or nixed, there's no way to recall and reprint the booklets in time for hunting season - the north zone dove season opens Sept. 11, two days after the Legislative Review Committee meeting.

The state would claim, of course, that crossbows are illegal, but anyone with a crossbow inclined to break the law could argue that it is listed as legal in the 2004-2005 handbook. It wouldn't take Perry Mason to get a ticket for hunting with a crossbow tossed out of court.

I suspect this is all much ado about nothing. I believe the Legislative Review Committee will simply put a rubber stamp on the Advisory Board's proposals, as it always has.

The bow hunters were given an opportunity to plead their case in a public hearing last month and they were not very persuasive. Only 30 to 35 people showed up and some of their arguments were asinine, to say the least. The meeting began with a bow hunter who said that if crossbows were legalized in Alabama, the next step would be legalizing hunting with hand grenades and same-sex marriages. I think even his bow hunting brethren were embarrassed.

Personally, I couldn't care less what becomes of all this. I have no plans to use either a crossbow or a turkey decoy, but that doesn't mean I have any right to tell you how you should hunt. Once the opponents of these two issues realize that hunters should quit the in-fighting and just go hunting, Alabama's great outdoors will become a whole lot better place.

Mike Bolton
Outdoor Editor

[Leo in Ga]

Thanks for the update striper, I have contacted a few in Alabama with info on the successes we have had in Ga with our crossbow season and that the DOOMSDAY lies spouted by a minority of Ga Archers have all proven FALSE

Here is an example of one of their BIG LIES

"Bow hunters opposing crossbow use contend that no one in the world recognizes crossbows as archery equipment, thus they should not be allowed in archery season. They also say they have fought for 30 years to have four weeks of archery-only season."

Hang in there, even with a minor setback, it is coming to be in more and more States as the truth is recognized

leo