Frank Antenori wants you to be able to hunt varmints at night.
And he wants you to be able to stalk that prey - and more - in cities.
But the Tucson Republican senator said he's not talking about some new form of urban hunting. Instead, his proposals, in two separate measures, are designed to deal with what he said are shortcomings in Arizona hunting laws.
First is the issue of night hunting.
Existing law limits hunting to daylight hours. HB 1335, titled "hunting at night, varmints," would create an exception for jackrabbits, raccoons and other "predatory animals."
"They're mostly nocturnal," he said. "So the likelihood of success in hunting them increases if you hunt them at night."
Antenori is particularly interested in providing new opportunities to hunt coyotes. He said these animals are taking their toll on deer and antelope, particularly the young ones in May, June and July.
"You do need to hunt them and keep that population sort of suppressed for that short period of time," he said.
Antenori said he doesn't want people just wandering around at night, firing into the dark.
He wants some safeguards, such as a requirement to scope out the area before it gets dark to ensure there are no occupied structures nearby. Antenori said he also believes that hunters need to have some lights to be able to see their targets.
Antenori also said he does not want to allow night hunting during "big game season."
"The Game and Fish guys don't want anybody out there shooting an elk and then claiming they shot them during the day time but using the cover if they get caught at night of saying that they were out there hunting coyotes," he said.
He acknowledged his legislation, as crafted, contains nothing to preclude that from happening. Antenori said that may require amending the measure, either to put that into law or, at least, giving the state Game and Fish Commission the power to enact some regulations.
His other hunting measure, HB 1334, would take away the right of cities to ban hunting within their limits.
Antenori said he's not proposing to let hunters go shooting in urbanized areas. Instead, he said the legislation is aimed at the issue of cities incorporating vast tracts of undeveloped state-owned property into their limits.
"Land that had usually been accessible and available for hunting has been annexed by cities," he said.
For example, Antenori said, Tucson has added large tracts of land to the east out to Vail. And Peoria has annexed property on its northern edge past Lake Pleasant.
"There have not been any structural changes," Antenori said, with the property still remaining unoccupied.
But he said current law and regulations allow the police chief to determine if an incorporated area is safe to hunt and, unilaterally, ban the practice.
Antenori said nothing in either bill would overrule existing regulations and laws which preclude hunting within one-quarter mile of an occupied structure.
Poorman posted at 10:56 am on Mon, Jan 31, 2011.
There have been some absurd ideas around thats for sure,but this one has got to be #1. As much as i don't want illegals in my state,and as much as i dislike them ,i sure as hell wouldn't want this to happen. My god would you want some nut out there hunting at night? Most of our so called hunters can't hunt in daylight much less at nite,wether its two legged coyotes or four legged.
Richka posted at 1:37 pm on Sun, Jan 30, 2011.
Howard Fischer needs a lot of thumbs up. His head line is hilarious and leaves much to one's imagination. Great job Howard....love it.
EmperorSmith posted at 4:56 pm on Sat, Jan 29, 2011.
talking talk but no walk..
samkat posted at 3:27 pm on Sat, Jan 29, 2011.
Only Dale would inject something into the conversation that is totally off base. :-)
Dale Whiting posted at 9:57 am on Sat, Jan 29, 2011.
Finally, some utility for Slabside's 33 round magazine! We can now slaughter varmin 33 at a time!
AZMomma posted at 9:32 am on Sat, Jan 29, 2011.
Depends on which sector we get drawn for ;o) I'm a bit south, so hope for the Vekol Road 1-8/I-10 area.
Richka posted at 8:11 pm on Fri, Jan 28, 2011.
Sure, I will be there with my coyote gun. A bounty would be great. Just give me more information about the prey, such as gender, size and age. A map of the designated hunting areas would be helpful. I would like a good spot on I-10.
AZMomma and rrjenn. maybe we'll get to together on our hunting venture?
rrjenn posted at 7:02 pm on Fri, Jan 28, 2011.
It's about time we start getting serious with these coyote's hauling co-conspirators around in over-loaded vans. Need to thin the herd a wee bit I think.
AZMomma posted at 5:43 pm on Fri, Jan 28, 2011.
Please put my name on the list to legally hunt COYOTEs at night. I have a pretty good idea we can find a lot of them around Drop Houses, traveling in over-loaded vans along I-10 and many sites in West Phoenix.
Can we also get some form of Bounty for them? Perhaps if we bring in their ears?
EmperorSmith posted at 4:47 pm on Fri, Jan 28, 2011.
Does it include Snipe? What are you going to use, bullets travel a long way.