Lone Star Bowhunters Association - H.B. 968~Allowing Crossbows During Archery Season

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H.B. 968~Allowing Crossbows During Archery Season

This bill was recently introduced to the House:

Quote:

81R5679 SLB-D

By: Homer

H.B. No. 968

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT
relating to the use of crossbows for hunting.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 43.201(a), Parks and Wildlife Code, is
amended to read as follows:

(a) Except as provided by Subsection (c) or (d), no person
may hunt deer, turkey, or javelina (collared peccary) during an
open archery season provided by law or by the proclamations of the
commission and during which season only crossbows, [used by hunters
with upper limb disabilities and] longbows, recurved bows, and
compound bows may be used unless the person has acquired an archery
hunting stamp issued to the person by the department. The
commission by rule may prescribe requirements relating to
possessing a stamp required by this subchapter.

SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies to a
proceeding regarding hunting with a crossbow that is pending or
filed on or after the effective date of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.

Time to make your voices heard again. This is not a TPWD Commission issue. The bill was introduced by Representative Mark Homer to the Texas Legislature.

Representative Mark Homer

Capitol Office: CAP 4S.3
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0650
Capitol Fax: (512) 463-0575

District Address: 1849 Lamar
Paris, TX 75460
District Phone: (903) 784-0977
District Fax: (903) 739-8411

Click HERE to send an email.

Another attempt at altering the archery season. WHY do they need crossbows since the draw weight minimum has been removed?

I sent an email to him asking why

Did you get an answer to why? Anyone wanting to use a crossbow can in the two + months of general season. Why don't they leave our bow hunting alone?

I sent him an e-mail & gave him a call.

We nee to start a major letter campaign to both Rep. Homer and Rep. Kumple...if you remember from last year, Kumple was the guy that introduced the crossbow bill.....I wrote a letter to Homer today and will also forward it to Kumple.....we need as many letters to these two gentlemen as soon as possible and when it gets into committee the committee members must receive the letters by the 1,000's.....

I did not get a reply

We may want to ask them just what part of government makes game regulations their job. If they are going to dictate game laws/regulations, then they need to fire the commission. Wouldn't you think?

Apparently, they have too much time on their hands turning a blind eye to more pressing issues. Like WHY is 190/36 still torn up in Temple/Belton?

Someone should really put a sticky about this in the TBH campfire section, I think alot of bowhunters aren't aware of this, and I know most don't realize that if it were not for a fluke it very likely would have been sneaked by 2 years ago.

I probably didn't present my position very well, but I emailed Senator Duncan and this is the reply his office returned. Not really an answer, but it is a response. So, hopefully, this is a good thing...

Quote:

From: Sarah Clifton <Sarah.Clifton@senate.state.tx.us> Add to Addresses
To: otcannon1@suddenlink.net Add to Addresses
Subject: Re: Crossbow Bill - HB 968 (Homer)
Size: 5 KB

Mr. Cannon-
Thank you for your email regarding HB 968. We will make sure Senator
Duncan is aware of your concern and will follow this bill as it moves
along in the legislative process.

Thanks,
Sarah Clifton

Sarah Clifton
Natural Resources Legislative Aide
Senator Robert Duncan
(512) 463-0128-Office
(512) 463-2424-Fax

----------------------

Once this thing is assigned to a committee, we need to consider ways to get our position infront of that committee BEFORE the public hearing date(s) and try to insure that we are not the 'defensive outsiders' that we appeared to be at the public hearing in 2007.

I think Brian did a great job at the hearing and preparing material last go around (and we did dodge the bullet), I just don't think that they are really listening much at those hearings. Often, their minds are made up by the time it gets that far.

One of the committee members mentioned (on the record, in a hearing) last go around that they had spent some time with "those crossbow people that came to see us"...we need to get a package to them and maybe find a way to get our foot in the door for a little early face-to-face too.

I agree Joey. I'm going to try to go see the local rep here in Angelo. Maybe we can have a productive dialogue.

I'm a terrible spokesman though... :(

I contacted Kevin Hisey at the Pope and Young Club yesterday and they are going to help us out...also Kevin is contacting [FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Doug Clayton and Mike Brust with [/FONT]the North American Bowhunting Coalition...we will need all of this to help on this bill.....once it hits a committee, we should be writing letters to committee members and any other Representatives that we call freinds to try to head this off....

MIke, thanks for your help. This will be a hard battle again, and it would be nice to be able to put it away for good. Bob

I have been trying to be proactive in this issue, I have sent a letter to Governor Rick Perry....of course his autoreply was below...
Thank you for sharing your opinion with the Office of the Governor. It will be forwarded to the appropriate staff member.
I suggest placing Perry's name on your mailing list and flood his office witht he same message as you would send to Kuemple and Homer......let's keep this going and not wait to start sending out letters.....