CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A referendum on whether hunting should be allowed on Sundays in Kanawha County is one step closer to being up for a vote on Election Day.
A 5-2 vote from the Kanawha Planning Commission Wednesday night recommended that the county commission add the measure to the November ballot.
“We think property owners should be able to use their property any time of the year, like any other county that’s passed Sunday hunting in recent years. We fully support it,” said Jason Webb representing the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Planning commissioner JD Stricklen was one the two ‘no’ votes, but he said it wasn’t because he was against hunting.
“I’m all for hunting, I’m all for guns; all my friends are hunters; I own firearms and support the NRA,” he said. “There’s other uses for the woods and nature other than hunting. I’m fine with the six days a week, but I’d like to save one day a week for recreating, picnicking, hiking; being able to take small children into the woods.”
Kem Shaw, a Division of Natural Resources wildlife biologist, said he came to Wednesday’s meeting to provide some facts but said the DNR was neutral on the issue.
“I was here and wanted to stress that if we do allow Sunday hunting, this doesn’t impact our management efforts,” Shaw said. “We don’t want to kill too many deer, but we haven’t so far.”
Shaw pointed out that for the last five years, deer kill numbers have been steady. Webb argued that most states had moved beyond banning hunting on Sunday.
“West Virginia is one of only eight states left in the nation that bans Sunday hunting in some form,” he said. “We have surrounding states of Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia that allow it. West Virginia needs to create a destination hunting state, and one way to that is to remove the ban on all 55 counties.”
Stricklen said that the last time a measure to allow Sunday hunting was on the ballot in Kanawha County in 2001, it failed overwhelmingly by about a 2:1 ratio.
“At the end of the day, it’ll end up most likely on the ballot to where the members of this county can decide,” he said.
21 West Virginia counties currently allow Sunday hunting on private lands only, while 34 do not allow it, according to the DNR website.