The Right to Hunt and Fish

-- HJR 20

Missouri has always been blessed with an abundance of wild game. Missourians have enjoyed the opportunity to hunt or fish either for sport, for providing food for their tables, or both. For several years the state has given the Missouri Department of Conservation the regulating authority over hunting and fishing. In my opinion we’ve given the department too much regulating authority. That may be a discussion for another day. But with all the allowances for hunting and fishing in Missouri there is nothing in our constitution that gives Missourians the right to hunt and fish.

More and more we see political activist groups pushing to take away an individual’s right to hunt and fish. The day may come when the Missouri legislature could be controlled by a majority who believe in the ideology of these anti-hunting and fishing activist groups. With a vote of the legislature and a governor, who might be receptive to their ideology, hunting and fishing could be made illegal in the state of Missouri.

Representative John Black is proposing we