Update on Two Pending Pro-Gun Bills in Nevada

Last week, Assembly Bill 246, sponsored by Assemblyman David Bobzien (D-24), passed out of the Assembly's Natural Resources Committee and is now slated to be heard in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.  A hearing date has yet to be scheduled, but it is not too soon to contact your State Representatives and ask for their support when it comes before them for a vote.  Contact information can be found here.

AB246 would establish an apprentice hunting license that would allow prospective hunters 12 years old and older to try their hand at hunting before completing a hunter education course.  Apprentice hunters would be required to be directly supervised in the field by a mentor who is at least 18 years old and who holds a valid Nevada hunting license.  Experience in more than two dozen other states shows that this apprentice hunting program is exceptionally safe and will bring many new hunters into the field. 

Hunter recruitment is critical to the long-term preservation of our hunting heritage.  Hunter numbers are declining and radical anti-hunting organizations like the Humane Society of the United States are doing everything they can to keep people from hunting.  Nevada currently ranks 49th among the states in hunter recruitment.  For every 100 Nevada hunters who permanently quit hunting, only 30 new hunters replace them.  This slide must be reversed, and AB246 will help in this effort. 

Research shows that overly burdensome regulations deter citizens from trying hunting for the first time.  This includes the current requirement that virtually all prospective hunters complete hunter education.  An apprentice hunting program allows people a “try it before they buy it” opportunity.  Ultimately, many will want to complete a hunter education course in order to hunt on their own and pursue game that requires special tags.  In the end, more citizens will complete hunter education and join the hunter ranks as a result.

Assembly Bill 288 fell victim to the April 10 bill deadline and is now dead for the 2009 legislative session.  Unfortunately, the Chair of the Judiciary Committee refused to schedule it for a hearing despite the numerous phone calls and emails generated by NRA members into the committee.   

Introduced by Assemblyman Harry Mortenson (D-42), AB288 would have permitted a person who is behaving lawfully to use deadly force in self-defense against someone who is attempting to commit a felony and who is unlawfully, forcefully, and without provocation intruding onto property where the defender has a right to be.  The defender would not have had to retreat and would have been protected from civil liability.  

Rest assured that this important self-defense issue will return for the 2011 session.