Fishing is a part of Pennsylvania’s culture that’s long been passed on from generation to generation.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
Pennsylvanians can hunt and fish and trap. Always have been able to, always will be able to.
Or will they?
A state lawmaker wants to make sure.
Sen. Charles T. McIlhinney Jr., a Bucks County Republican, is sponsor of Senate Bill 720. It would amend the state constitution to guarantee the right to “hunt, fish and harvest game.”
“The freedom to hunt and fish is a valued natural heritage that must be preserved for the citizens of Pennsylvania. These activities also play an important role in the state’s economy and in the conservation, preservation and management of the state’s natural areas and resources,” McIlhinney wrote.
Twenty-one other states have similarly amended their constitutions,. Two others recognized the right to hunt and fish in statute, meaning law. Another two recognize the right to fish, though not hunt.
According to National Conference of State Legislatures, Vermont was the first state to protect hunting and fishing. Its constitution has guaranteed those rights since 1777.
The other states to protect hunting and fishing have all done so since 1996, it adds.
The difference
What’s changed in the last 20 years?
The threat to the outdoor sports, it seems.
“Though hunting, fishing and harvesting wildlife have long been an American heritage since before the first Europeans arrived in North America, only recently has the ‘right’ to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife come into question,” says the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation in a letter written by one of its leaders, Chris Horton.
“Anti-hunting organizations would lead the public to believe that hunting, fishing, and harvesting wildlife are only a privilege subject to social pressures and prevailing public sentiments, rather than an inherent right.”
The recent move to amend constitutions is an effort to beat back those claims, he added.
The National rifle Association agreed.
“America’s sporting heritage is under attack like never before, by well-funded, national anti-hunting groups that want to ban all hunting, trapping and fishing,” it says in language on its website.
The process
The NRA has developed a model “right to hunt and fish” amendment. It gives states a template to work from.
It’s largely been up to voters to bring these things to life, though.
In most cases, these amendments have mostly come to be courtesy of voters in ballot referendums.
That’s not necessarily possible here. Pennsylvania law allows for putting an amendment on the ballot. First, though, it must be approved by both the House and Senate in two consecutive legislative sessions.
Lawmakers haven’t moved in that direction yet.
McIlhinney’s bill was referred to the Senate game and fisheries committee for review on May 18. It’s not been addressed since.
