Mississippi Senate Bill 2922!

Mike -

The full vote on House Bill 1282 is scheduled for Thursday, February 11. There are problems with the bill as it is presently written and it is very unlikely it will be amended.  Crossbow hunters wanted a bill that provided:

1)  A clear definition of legal archery weapons.  Currently, there is no such definition anywhere in Mississippi law.  By implication only, those weapons are long bows, recurve bows, and compound bows.  We wanted an official definition that added crossbows, which would legitimize the state�s 2300 resident crossbow licensees.  This bill does not have it.

2) Inclusion in the special archery only season with traditional bows which opens Oct. 1 and runs through the Friday before Thanksgiving.  House Bill 1282 seeks to restructure the archery season, leaving the entire month of October open for exclusive use by traditional bows only and making the last 19 days (only 2 weekends) open for traditional bows, primitive weapons, and crossbows.  General Crossbow licensees and traditional bow hunters are both allowed to hunt during all the hunter orange gun seasons, but the crossbow users are required to purchase an additional license that no other user group is required to buy.  The bill does nothing to rectify the extra license requirement.

In contrast, Senate Bill 2922  would not seek to restructure the season. Similarly, that bill as written, provides no definition of legal archery weapons either, but it would at least imply crossbows were legal weapons for deer and turkey season with no exclusions.  It is unlikely, however, that SB 2922 will make it out of committee (the deadline is February 2) and the Chairman of that committee has already had ample opportunity to bring the bill out.  Add to that the fact that the Mississippi Department of Wildlife is not supporting Senate Bill 2922, but rather pushing for passage of HB 1282 because they want more deer killed by gun hunters and they eventually want to go to an �any and all weapon� deer season opening October 1 and running through January 31.  Passage of this bill would be a stepping stone to accomplish their long range goal.   For those reasons, the Senate Bill will probably die in committee unless some supernatural force build a fire under the Chairman of the Senate Committee and that would not in any way guarantee passage on the full Senate Floor and in the House of Representatives,

The MS Bow Hunters Assoc. is against all the bills, for they in one way or the other, chabge season structure and seek to tamper with their birthright to hunt in the special October archery season to the exclusion of all others.  They have actually gone to war over the possible loss of the last 19 days because HB 1282 would allow crossbows and primitive weapons during those last few days.  They are on record saying they had rather lose archery season altogether than allow general crossbow hunters in with them.  Figure that out! In my humble opinion, it all boils down to greed and selfish paranoia.