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Roanoke Civic Center

January 28, 2012 by · Comments Off on Roanoke Civic Center 

Roanoke Civic Center, One topic hunters were buzzing about at the hunting expo at the Roanoke Civic Center on Friday, is the Sunday Hunting Bill.  “More time to hunt, I’m all for it,” said one hunter. While most of the hunters we talked to support the bill, hunting guide Mike Puffenbarger does not.

“I think everything needs a day of rest, including our bodies,” said Puffenbarger.  After passing the Senate, now it goes to the House Agriculture Committee, where Franklin County Delegate Charles Poindexter (R-9th) serves. We spoke to him by phone when he had a break in Richmond.

“I’m not too keen on a blanket lift of the ban. That would be going too far I think,” said Poindexter.

The 9th District Delegate says what he’s been hearing from fellow Republicans, is that this bill won’t just be a blanket lift of the Sunday Hunting ban, and a lot of different stipulations may be added in the House.

“There’s talk of after church opening time, like 1:00 p.m. or something like that. That might be in the bill, or limit it to private property, and the hunters would be limited to the family, and immediate family,” Poindexter noted.

Poindexter says he’d be in favor for the second of those options, which would not include people who lease land, or get permission from a landowner.

The big question is, what are the chances of some form of the bill passing in the House? A similar bill failed in a Senate committee last year by a vote of 2 to 13.

Even though Republicans largely control the House, that’s no predictor because Republicans and Democrats voted on both sides of the issue in the Senate.

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