Bill Proposing Constitutional Protection of Hunting Passes Texas Senate

The Texas Senate has approved a proposed amendment to the Texas Constitution that would guarantee Texans’ rights to hunt and fish, and it is now headed to the House for a vote.

The amendment would not affect any current laws but would add a constitutional provision that would legally prohibit any future limitation of hunting or fishing.

Texas Parks and Wildlife would still collect license fees, and the measure would not affect a city’s ability to prohibit discharging weapons inside their limits.  But the resolution’s author, Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), says the proposed constitutional amendment would protect the state’s heritage of hunting and fishing.

“Deer hunts have ended in parts of New York. Black bear season in New Jersey, cougar hunting in Oregon and dove hunting has been prohibited in Michigan,” he said yesterday. “So, states with constitutional amendments have weathered such threats.”

The bill also recognizes hunting and fishing as the “preferred methods of managing and controlling wildlife.”

As of now, 18 states have passed such measures protecting the right to hunt and fish.  The resolution passed the Senate 27 to 3. If the resolution passes in the House, it will go before voters in November.

Source: Texas Public Radio