The weather is just starting to turn, and leaves have begun to fall from the trees in Pennsylvania. On this warm and sunny fall Sunday everyone is outdoors enjoying the beautiful day before winter sets in. Almost everyone, that is. Hunters have been all but excluded from the Sunday fun for decades. Pennsylvania law bans sportsmen from partaking in their preferred activity on Sundays, and this needs to change. Hunters in Pennsylvania should be allowed to hunt on Sundays because many people are free only on Sundays’, hunting will have a minimal impact on other usual activities, and the law itself is antiquated.

First, for most people, Sunday is the most convenient day of the week to hunt. People work, go to school, and have other general responsibilities that take up a lot of time throughout the week. Sunday is a day that most people normally have off, and by that time of the week most work is finished. A poll by Gallup, taken August 29, 2014, shows that 50% of people work more than 40 hours a week, and nearly 20% work around 60 (Gallup). According to James Heskett, a Harvard business professor, working long hours such as these “invariably takes its toll on personal life” (Americans). With so many people working long hours that make it hard to find free time, it is easy to see that it could be difficult for many to find time to go hunting. Opening Sundays to hunting would give people who work long hours a day when they likely have a break in their heavy schedules to go outside and enjoy nature. Along with adults, young hunters are negatively impacted by the law as well. The average student attends school seven hours a day on weekdays and participates in numerous activities and athletics afterwards. On top of an already long day, students are given an average of 10-15 hours of assigned homework a week and are expected to study for tests and quizzes. With all this work it is not hard to imagine that students can not find the time to go hunting. Opening Sundays to hunting would give students the option to hunt on a day where school and activities are not going on. Though the Sunday hunting ban makes it difficult for individuals to find the time to go out, it makes it almost impossible for family and friends to have fun hunting together. It is hard enough for people to match up schedules to do anything; however, it is harder still to get together to hunt because Sunday is not an option. In a personal poll of Pittsburgh area hunters, avid sportsmen were only able to hunt with friends or family 4 days a year (Komara). If Sunday hunting were legalized it would make it easier for friends and family to get outside and bond over an activity they love.
        

Second, hunting does not have to interfere with other recreational activities. Many people who utilize public lands for non-hunting activities feel uncomfortable enjoying themselves so close to people discharging firearms or bows. These recreators like the Sunday ban because it provides a day to feel safe in the woods. However, opening Sundays to hunting does not have to mean that all the recreation area will become flooded with hunters who push out other users. According to a paper by the PSU Center for Private Forests, “11.5 million acres or about 71% of all the state’s 16.8 million acres of forestland is privately owned” (Pennsylvania). Those 11.5 million acres are mostly land that the public is barred from using. If hunting were allowed just on these private lands on Sunday, recreational users could have full use of public lands and hunters could utilize their own or a friend’s property. Conversely, just as there are lands that do not allow recreational use, there are public parks that ban hunting. There are many public lands throughout PA that are not ever open to hunting, which can be used by concerned outdoor enthusiasts if Sunday hunting is legalized. The Theodore Parker Natural Area, A public park managed by the Lancaster Parks Service, would be a good place for non-hunters to go if they feel uncomfortable being around hunters. This offers plenty of room for activities as well as a permanent ban on hunting. Though there are options for total separation of hunting and other outdoor activities, they can exist in the same area in harmony. There are public recreation areas in Pennsylvania that have partition plans in place to separate recreators and hunters. A popular fishing stream, Spring Creek, in central Pennsylvania runs through state game lands where hunting and fishing are both encouraged. To ensure fishermen feel comfortable amidst the hunting, a 50 yard safety area has been established along both banks where hunting is forbidden. Hunting and recreation can be separated from each other to encourage safety while still being on the same public lands.
        

Last, the law that people cannot hunt on Sundays is antiquated and unfair. First, the law was instated for a group of people that no longer exists. The law against hunting on Sunday is a remnant of the blue laws of the 17 and 1800’s (outdoors). How can a law based on such limited ideas still be relevant today? It can not. These religiously motivated laws were thought up by the Puritans, a religious group which had a large following in early America (outdoors). Today, however, the Puritan faith is virtually non-existent because of a more general knowledge and understanding. People of today should not have to live under a law based on such old and uneducated principles.  Next, the law's main goal is no longer a concern of the majority of the population of Pennsylvania. Originally made to keep the Sabbath holy, the law has outlived its usefulness in today's society. Forty three percent of the population of PA does not identify with any religion, and sixty six percent of people who are religious do not worship more than twice a month (Wormald). The majority of the people do not care about keeping the Sabbath holy, and should not be told that they have to by a state law. Though there are a lot of people who do not pay attention to holy days anymore, there are others who have holy days or worship on days other than Sunday. Over two and a half million people of Jewish or Muslim faith live in PA, both religions that worship on a day other than Sunday (Wormald). These people worship on their holy day, but then cannot go hunting on the other day of their weekend. It is not fair that they have to work around the day of worship of a religion that they do not follow. This religious based law should be removed for these many reasons.
        

Though there are many arguments for hunting on Sunday, there are also some very good arguments against it. One reason that many people believe Sunday hunting should remain illegal is conservation. If one more day was open to hunting, then a lot more people would be out harvesting game. Opponents fear that the opportunity for so many more people to hunt regularly will result in much higher than average annual harvests and could hurt wild game populations. This, however, is an unfounded fear. License sales are limited based on Wildlife Management Units,  an area of measured game population (Mere). Say for example that all of the 6000 deer tags sold in 2016 in a zoned area identified as WMU 2H were filled. The number of tags sold are few enough that a one hundred percent filling would not harm the overall deer population. Aside from general overharvesting, some believe that game animals need a day to rest. These opposers believe that the stress placed on game animals if hunting were allowed every day of the week would place too much stress on animals such as deer during their breeding season and cause poor amounts of reproduction, resulting in the decline of the species. However, in both Pennsylvania and Maine, two states that ban hunting on Sundays, deer are beginning to become overpopulated (Mere). In fact, some areas have more than four times the number of deer than it can support. Conversely, North Carolina, which recently legalized Sunday hunting, currently has perfectly stable deer populations (Mere). Hunting seven days a week may or stress deer, but there is no evidence that it will result in population decline. Finally, overpopulated areas of deer have shown to result in more vehicle to animal incidents, and hunting on a Sunday to help maintain that equal balance in populated areas may reduce vehicle accidents and possibly fatalities.
        

The ban on hunting on Sundays has been a part of Pennsylvania's hunting culture  for decades, but it needs to change. The law against Sunday hunting is inconvenient, poorly based, and antiquated. This pointless law must be repealed. Call, email, or write your state legislators to voice opposition to this law and request that it be overturned.