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Petition To Allow Modern Handgun Hunting
Petition Sponsored By:
Mr. Peditto,
We are submitting this Letter of Petition to the DNR Wildlife and Heritage Service, on behalf of the citizens of the Region B zone of Maryland. This Petition states our demand to have the Deer Firearms Modern Handgun Deer Hunting regulation changed in the upcoming 2012 proposals for the Region B zone of Maryland to include the use of a Modern Handgun in those counties that currently do not permit the use of a Modern Handgun for the purpose of Deer hunting under the current, outdated, Region B regulation.
The nonexistent Modern Handgun regulation of Region B has been deemed outdated due to the advancements in shotgun and muzzleloading ammunition ballistics that are allowed in the Region B zone. The time has come to bring the Modern Handgun regulations up to date with the currently acceptable forms of firearms regulations that are required for the Deer Firearms seasons in Region B.
We, the undersigned, are submitting this petition to you and your department our names as individuals and as a group that supports this cause so that you and the deciding parties with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources can be made aware of the importance of this regulation change to our community.
Thank You,
Letter Of Petition, and the Petition Privacy Policy by using the file links below to collect signatures from your groups, clubs, & those whom you wish to support this statewide regulation change. You must print all 3 files for a complete petition packet.
Print Petition Signatures Form
Email your Comments to be filed with the petition to:
Original Email Inquiry:
From: Southern Maryland Shooting Times [mailto:smst@somd.net]
Hello Mr. Heilmeier,
I have a few simple questions in regards to the current laws and regulations related to hunting with handguns in Region B of Maryland, Deer hunting specifically. I have noticed that there has been a lot of comments made in the recent months regarding the regulations of handgun use for Deer hunting in Region B and I am stepping up to find out, Why this regulation even exists, and What can be done to change it, to allow modern handgun use for Deer hunting in Region B.
I do agree the regulation seems a bit odd and outdated, and it appears as though no one really understands how this regulation came to be in the first place. The issue lies within the debates of regulation allowing the use of sabot rifle slugs for both the shotgun and muzzleloader Deer seasons in Region B of Maryland, however, no regulations have ever been changed to allow for the use of Handguns for the Deer hunting season.
If you can enlighten me on these issues, and offer some guidance to possible changes in the current regulation, I would appreciate your efforts. I do look forward to your reply, and as always, your help with my questions over the past few years has been extremely valuable and informative.
Thanks Again,
Email replies SMST has received
Modern handguns are permitted for deer hunting use only in Counties where breech loading rifles are permitted for use for deer hunting. This regulation addresses the concern of the highly populated Counties of the State regarding the safety aspects of discharging high powered long range handguns in densely populated areas. This is the same reasoning that breech loading rifles are not permitted for use for deer hunting in a large portion of the state.
If you would like to propose changes to this regulation there is a mechanism in place to do that. MD DNR reviews and when necessary makes changes to our hunting regulations every two years. During that process the DNR proposes changes to some regulations and takes public comment on those proposed changes. During this process the DNR will also take suggestions or proposals to change existing regulations. The next round of hunting regulation proposals for comment will be in 2012. At that time you can propose any changes you would like to see and the DNR will take the suggestion or proposal into consideration. You can monitor our website (www.dnr.maryland.gov) for information and announcements about the regulation proposal process. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Thank you,
David Heilmeier
Greetings, Mr. Owens.
Paul Peditto asked be to respond to your email on how our hunting regulation changes are made. I hope this answers your questions.
The Wildlife and Heritage Service reviews and makes changes to the hunting regulations every two years. This process takes many months to complete and includes several opportunities for public input. You may submit suggestions for regulation changes at any time in the process, but the earlier the better. As the process evolves we tend to avoid adding significant NEW changes and focus on making only minor changes to (or dropping) what we have proposed.
We will begin the discussions within the Game Management Program in late October, 2011. That is the ideal time to have your proposal(s) in our hands to discuss. We then develop Regulation Concepts by early January 2012 and begin making those possible changes available to the public for feedback. Regulation Concepts are changes we are considering making that are totally open to change due to public input. We also add new ideas we did not consider in October. We carefully review public input on the Regulation Concepts and refine them into Regulation Proposals.
Regulation Proposals are the changes we intend to make unless public input convinces us to drop them or make modifications. We try not to add major NEW regulation changes once we get to the Regulation Proposal stage.
We offer several opportunities for public input during the regulation change cycle. We will hold several public meetings around the state during March of 2012. We will also have an Internet forum open during that same month where folks can respond directly to the Regulation Proposals as well as see the comments made by others. We also receive input via phone calls, mail and fax. We review all the public input and submit the final regulation changes to the Maryland Register in April 2012.
I hope this answers you question. The best time to get new ideas into the discussion will be in mid to late October, 2011. However, you can submit ideas anytime before then and we’ll keep them on hand to consider next fall.
My contact info is below:
Peter S. Jayne
Greetings again Mr. Owens.
In thinking about my email to you I realized I left out an important point. Although the details below on how we review our regulations are accurate, there is an important twist to this when a request involves the use of modern centerfire firearms for deer hunting. Although we can technically use regulations to establish the use of these weapons for deer, we have a long administrative history in allowing county delegations to select what modern centerfire firearms may be used for deer hunting in their counties. So, before you request we allow the use of handguns for deer in every county, you would need to obtain the support of each county delegation where that change would occur (Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Caroline, Charles, Harford, Howard, Kent, Montgomery, Prince George’s, Queen Anne’s, St. Mary’s, Talbot and Worcester counties).
As I am sure you realize, it is not practical to gain the support of all of these county delegations as it involves many county commissioners, county executives, delegates and state senators. I see two logical alternatives for you to consider. One is to work with your elected officials to have a bill introduced into the General Assembly to make the changes you want to see. Another option is to pick several key counties most important to you and work with just those delegations to see how they react to your suggestion.
I realize this represents a significant hurdle to your plan to make handguns legal for deer hunting statewide in Maryland. Nevertheless, our history of using this approach is a very long one and is unlikely to change anytime soon. I can offer several Websites to help you along.
- To learn more about the General Assembly and find out who the delegates and senators are for the areas you are interested in, go to http://mlis.state.md.us/ and click on “Contact or find a Legislator”.
- The regulation that would need to be changed can be found at http://www.dsd.state.md.us/comar/comarh ... .04.05.htm
I regret not including this in my first email to you but I didn’t think of this requirement until later. Good luck with your efforts.
Pete Jayne
SMST Response:
Until this email reply, we had no knowledge of this "bump in the road" process. I assume we now have to appoint a representative for each county to initiate the processes of filing proposals to their counties commissioners for passing the proposal in each county, who knows folks, we have been having a really tough time trying to find a county representative who is not afraid to discuss firearms regulations with us, or one who is even understanding of the regulations and firearms laws in Maryland. It's a sad affair at this point.
I do greatly appreciate the efforts and extremely good knowledge presented by Mr. Heilmeier and Mr. Jayne in this "understanding of process", you gentleman should be highly commended for knowing your stuff, when few other seem to.
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