In case you weren’t aware some members of the Missouri House are so interested in an existential threat to our personal freedoms wasting everyone’s time on symbolic bills that they’ve introduced a constitutional amendment to enshrine our personal right to hunt and fish.
FIRST REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 5
96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLYINTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES POLLOCK (Sponsor), SCHOELLER, WELLS, DENISON, THOMSON, SMITH (150), KORMAN, HOUGHTON, BURLISON, BLACK, ENTLICHER, DUGGER, COOKSON, KLIPPENSTEIN, SCHATZ, DAVIS, McCAHERTY, FITZWATER, HINSON, KELLEY (126), HARRIS, FRANKLIN, BRATTIN, WYATT, WHITE, BROWN (116), RICHARDSON, HOUGH, RIDDLE, WRIGHT, LICHTENEGGER, LOEHNER, WETER, KEENEY, TILLEY, ALLEN, NASHEED, McGHEE, DIECKHAUS, SCHAD, RUZICKA, LAIR, FISHER, PHILLIPS, HIGDON, JONES (117), JONES (89), REDMON, CRAWFORD, ELMER, LANT, REIBOLDT, COX, GUERNSEY, HOSKINS, CIERPIOT, SCHIEFFER, SHUMAKE, CURLS AND ZERR (Co-sponsors).
0597L.01I D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk
JOINT RESOLUTION
Submitting to the qualified voters of Missouri, an amendment to article I of the Constitution of Missouri, and adopting one new section relating to the personal right to hunt and fish.
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring therein:
That at the next general election to be held in the state of Missouri, on Tuesday next following the first Monday in November, 2012, or at a special election to be called by the governor for that purpose, there is hereby submitted to the qualified voters of this state, for adoption or rejection, the following amendment to article I of the Constitution of the state of Missouri:
Section A. Article I, Constitution of Missouri, is amended by adding one new section, to be known as section 35, to read as follows:
Section 35. That the citizens of this state shall have the personal right to hunt and fish, subject to reasonable regulations and restrictions as provided by law. The recognition of this right does not abrogate any private or public property rights, nor does it limit the state’s power to regulate commercial activity. Traditional manners and means may be used to take nonthreatened species.
[emphasis in original]
Does this mean, because hunting will be constitutionally “subject to reasonable regulations and restrictions”, that we’ll have to get a license to add to our Lepidoptera collection? When butterfly nets are outlawed, only outlaws will have butterfly nets.
Since corporate personhood is now a given, will we have to fight for elbow room with a multinational on opening day? Just asking. That commerce clause reference makes one pause, eh?
Is anyone in Jefferson City interested in spending time addressing job creation and unemployment? Anyone?