I’ll give Ed Rendell credit when he does something good for sportsmen:
In recent years, Pennsylvania has been at the forefront when it comes to creating and expanding hunting and shooting sports opportunities for youth and promoting them as family activities. Last year, that position received national attention when Gov. Ed Rendell demonstrated his support by holding a public signing ceremony that made Pennsylvania the first state to adopt Families Afield legislation.
Created by the United States Sportsmen’s Alliance, Families Afield addresses the concerns of declining participation in hunting. Since then, other states — recognizing the economic impact of the shooting sports and hunting, and its direct benefit to conservation — have followed Pennsylvania’s lead by passing similar legislation.
The bill allows adults to mentor young hunters without having to have a license. Truth be told, we need this across the board. The main obstacle to me going out and hunting for the first time is the fact that I have to find time to take hunters education, and buy the license. Hunting will continue to decline as long as barriers to the sport remain high. We need hunting for the shooting sports to be healthy, and for our rights to be safe. This is a great step in the right direction, but I think we need more.
He says he just did it last year, but he really did it in 2005. He just had a big ta-da signing ceremony for himself in 2006. Minor nitpick on the language, but I just remember the pain in the ass it was because they couldn’t decide if we should count it in our 2006 annual report or not since we did when it technically became law in 2005.