Jan. 29–RICHMOND — Here’s the latest evidence of a changing Virginia: A decades-old ban on Sunday hunting, long cherished in the state’s hinterlands, appears to be on the way out.
The House of Delegates voted 71-27 Tuesday to allow hunting on Sundays. If the legislation is approved by the Senate — which passed a similar measure two years ago — and signed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, hunters will be free of the prohibition as of July 1.
Proponents of the measure portrayed it as an effort to help preserve a disappearing tradition in an urbanizing state by giving hunters another day in the week to stalk their prey. Opponents decried it as the latest in a long line of assaults on the Christian day of worship in an increasingly secular world.
The Sunday-hunting ban, which has been on the books since 1930, was once part of a network of “blue laws” prohibiting commerce and other activity on the Christian Sabbath — a network that has been largely shredded in recent decades.
The debate over repealing this vestige of those laws pitted delegates from rural Virginia, who see eye-to-eye on most issues, against one another other. Their urban colleagues, for whom hunting is a nonissue, watched from the sidelines.
The sponsor of the bill (HB1237), Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, cast it as an attempt to save a beloved, centuries-old tradition. Hunting is an important part of Virginia’s heritage, he said, and it is declining precipitously: Fewer than 3 percent of Virginians are hunters.
Moreover, Gilbert said, allowing Sunday hunting would help control an exploding deer population, curb the spread of Lyme disease and reduce collisions with wildlife on the roadways.
Opponents of the measure, most of them from the Bible Belt counties of Southside Virginia, invoked tradition, too — that of keeping the Sabbath holy.
“Sunday is the Lord’s day,” said Del. Tommy Wright, R-Lunenburg County.
Before approving the repeal bill, the House rebuffed an amendment offered by Del. Matt Fariss, R-Campbell County, to allow localities to opt out and keep the Sunday ban.
It took some deft parliamentary maneuvering to get Gilbert’s bill onto the House floor.
When the 2012 repeal bill, sponsored by now-Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, passed the Senate, it went to a seven-member House subcommittee, which tabled it. The measure never was put to a full committee vote.
This year, in an unusual move, the subcommittee was bypassed. The bill was routed straight to the full Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee, which advanced it to the floor on a 12-10 vote.
In a concession to those concerned about despoiling the Sabbath, the bill prohibits hunting within 200 yards of a house of worship. It also would ban hunting deer with dogs on Sundays.
Bill Sizemore, 804-697-1560,[email protected]
