The debate regarding Sunday hunting has intensified since results of the DGIF study were released, and one issue has been brought up a lot: landowner rights.

A number of people have pointed out that landowners weren't surveyed.

How can the law be changed, they wonder, if landowners didn't get to voice their opinion?

Whoa!

Yes, two Sunday hunting related bills already have been introduced to the General Assembly. Will the mood of the majority of the General Assembly, which has been very timid regarding this issue, shift based on this one survey? I doubt it.

I don't think the Sunday hunting ban will be lifted without giving landowners -- and other outdoors enthusiasts, and the general public -- a chance to weigh in on this. Can that happen in the next 45 days? I'm not betting on it.

On the specific issue of surveying landowners, I plan to follow up on this with the DGIF. In the meantime I have some thoughts on why it didn't happen this time.

In short, properly surveying landowners would have made the survey job more complicated and pricey, and would have taken longer. Clearly, the agency wanted to get this done before the General Assembly got rolling. The survey results might not change what happens with those bills, but at least the DGIF has the information.

For this survey, mining the DGIF's list of licensed hunters – easily available thanks to the DGIF’s new point-of-sale system – was a quick way to come up with a sample. It was so quick and affordable the department was able to sample a much larger group than necessary to produce valid survey results.

(To answer concerns of one caller, who wondered who authorized the DGIF to spend his "license dollars" on the study: The department's board authorized it by a unanimous vote. It was money well spent. Obviously, this is a hugely important, controversial issue and the board members know that they need current data to support whatever direction they might ulitmately take with this.

The same caller wanted to know why he wasn't surveyed. He wasn't surveyed for the same reason I've never won the lottery. Bad luck.)

As it was, even though landowners are license-exempt when hunting on their own land, plenty have licenses so they can hunt other properties. So a good number of those approximately 2,950 respondents were probably landowners.

What was the breakdown? I'd like to know as much as you would. I'll try to find out.

Still, I suspect a survey of only landowners, especially those who own good-sized parcels, would produce a higher percentage of those who don't support Sunday hunting. Some of the reasons – in addition to religious convictions, that is -- have been noted in comments to my Monday entry on this topic.

For example, it's a day for landowners to get things done on their land, whether it’s work or play. If they are willing to put up with hunting the rest of the week, don’t they deserve a break? Sure, they can make the rules. But, as one friend who opposes Sunday hunting said, it’s one more thing for them to worry about, and they already go above and beyond the call to let us hunt. It also allows non-hunters who may use the property for recreation a chance to get out there without worrying about gunshots.

Speaking of gunshot-free Sundays, where are they? I know I hear plenty of gunshots on Sundays when I'm out mountain biking, hiking or moving treestands. And it's not like I'm next to licensed shooting preserves -- where, interestingly enough, Sunday hunting is LEGAL.

Of course, because hunters account for roughly 10 percent of the population in Virginia, many of those landowners aren't hunters. Non-hunters seem far less likely than hunters to care whether or not hunting is allowed on Sundays.

There's another reason that some landowners, even those who hunt, probably aren't particularly eager to see the law change: access.

In fact, I think if you could make a blanket statement about Sunday hunting it would be this: Access is the most important determining factor in a hunter's opinion.

The numbers indicate as much.

Hunters who are most likely to favor Sunday hunting are those who face the biggest hurdles getting out to the woods -- city dwellers and younger hunters.

Consider that 76 percent of those surveyed hunters under 30 support Sunday hunting. Is that because they're not religious? I don't think so. Many of those hunters work full time, so unless they take vacation (which plenty do, of course), they get one day a week to hunt. If they have kids, it gets even tougher thanks to other family commitments.

On the other hand, hunters over 60 overwhelmingly oppose Sunday hunting. Certainly, part of it may be their attachment with tradition. The older we get, the less we like change.

But it's also a simple matter of practicality. Many older hunters are retired. Under the current system they already have access to hunting six days a week. They don’t crave that seventh day because they don’t need it.

Landowners, be they working age or retired, have an access advantage if they reside on their huntable parcels. It's relatively easy for them to slip out for a quick early morning or late afternoon hunt. It takes much more time for a hunter who lives in a town or even the suburbs.

Interestingly, one of proposed bills would legalize Sunday hunting only on private land. I don't predict a long life for that bill.

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• Posted by Mark Taylor in Hunting
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