Post by Itrapny on May 5, 2006 15:02:54 GMT -5
COMMUNICATION FROM NYSCC PRESIDENT HAROLD PALMER
May 4, 2006
JUNIOR HUNTER INFORMATION
IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED!
Re: Bill #A1815 / S-1536
Summary: to allow 14 and 15 year old young adults to hunt big game with a gun.
I am asking all of New York's sportsmen/women to WRITE LETTERS, MAKE PHONE CALLS, and FAX the chairs of the Environmental Conservation Committees of the New York State Assembly and Senate.
Ask them to please place Assembly Bill A-1815 / Senate Bill S-1536 on the EnCon Committee agenda, with the request that it be reported to the floor for passage by the full Assembly / Senate.
Assembly Bill A-1815 / Senate Bill S-1536 would create a junior big game license that would allow 14 & 15 year old young adults to hunt big game during the regular big game season in New York. New York State is the only state that does not allow 14 and 15 years olds to have a junior big game license. There are 26 states that have no minimum age for big game hunting.
Northeast states adjacent to New York have lower minimum ages. These states include Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Vermont has no minimum age. We are losing big game hunters when they have to take their youth to these states so they can hunt big game at an earlier age, instead of hunting big game in New York State.
New York Environmental Conservation Law requires that all first-time hunters attend and pass a ten-hour hunter education class. Until 16 years of age, the junior big game hunter must be supervised by a licensed parent or guardian. Our supervised young hunters are the safest in the field. There is no good reason to not allow them to hunt big game with a firearm. Young hunters are already allowed to hunt big game with archery equipment starting at 14 and small game with a firearm at 12.
Ask your Assemblyman and Senator and the Chairman of the EnCon Committees to allow these youth to go big game hunting with their mothers and fathers. This
forges and builds stronger family values and bonds. The youth of today need to be able to spend time with their parents in the field, not be turned away by restrictive laws when the parents go hunting.
Please contact the EnCon Committee chairs and ask them to move Bills A-1815 / S-1536. Letters should be sent right away. To make sure our message is heard, make follow-up phone calls and send faxes. MAKE CALLS AND SEND FAXES ON MAY 15 AND 16, and again on MAY 22 AND 23. Ask your family and friends and co-workers to do the same. If everyone will call and fax on these specific days, our combined messages will be received loud and clear by these individuals who refuse to allow this legislation to be voted on.
Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli
Chairman, Assembly EnCon Committee
625 LOB, Albany, NY 12248
Phone: 518-455-5192 Fax: 518-455-4921
Email: dinapot@assembly.state.ny.us
Senator Carl Marcellino
Chairman, Senate EnCon Committee
812 LOB, Albany, NY 12247
Phone: 518-455-2390 Fax: 518-426-6975
Email: marcelli@senate.state.ny.us
Please contact your state assembly and senate representatives so they get the message as well.
Yours in Conservation,
Harold L. Palmer
President
New York State Conservation Council, Inc.