Quote:
Originally Posted by pottymouth
Perhaps it's still to new everywhere, so seeing the consequence will take a couple of more years. Maybe the damaging effects by then would be to late to fix. The trend you would be looking for is a balance at first and a graduale shift in numbers....it won't be a crash that everyone thinks......we are talking long term affects that people are not seeing.
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Actually it isn't that new pottymouth. This is from the editor of Horizontal Bowhunter, Daniel James Hendricks.
This past year has been a banner year for the expansion of the crossbow hunting seasons. The first state to add the crossbow to their bowhunting season was North Carolina. For some unexplainable reason, the southern states have marched at the very front of the movement to include crossbows into the archery seasons. Wyoming has always (since the very first day of its archery season) considered the crossbow to be just another piece of archery equipment. The South answered back in 1973 when the second state to include the crossbow in its archery season was Arkansas. In 1976, Ohio was the next state to jump on the “bandwagon of common sense” making the crossbow just one more choice for its bowhunters.
For the next 26 years, a struggle was waged against a very small and dedicated group of pro-crossbow advocates (many of whom I am privileged to call friend) by a very large and vocal camp of anti-crossbow bowhunters. Throughout that time, the crossbow movement gathered data from the states that allowed crossbows, using that information to inform and educate the general-public, as well as legislators and state game management agencies. In 2002, the growing bloc of crossbow advocates had their next expansion victory when the state of Georgia moved to the crossbow side of the ledger. In 2004, another State from the Deep South, Alabama, joined the slowly swelling ranks of the crossbow camp. In 2005, it was Tennessee and Virginia that threw their support behind the crossbow by including it in their archery season.
As the struggle intensified, gains stalled out until 2008 when two more Southern States, Louisiana and South Carolina joined the enlightened and added their names to the pro-crossbow roster. That brought the total number of states that consider the crossbow to be just another archery tool to nine.
This year has been a whirl-wind rollercoaster ride for the crossbow movement as the names of five more states have been added to the list. North Carolina went first carrying on the great tradition of the South leading the way. The North finally got busy by adding Pennsylvania and the lower two-thirds of Michigan after long and intense struggles that were intellectually argued by the local pro-crossbow movements. The South spoke loudly once again, when Texas stepped across the line by legislating crossbow inclusion nearly unanimously in both their House of Representatives and their state’s Senate. The cherry on the sundae in 2009 was the sweet little state of New Jersey, which is the most recent convert to the crossbow cause. Those victories expand the crossbow hunting opportunity to approximately 2 million additional gun hunters and 618 thousand bowhunters. It is our sincere hope that these new crossbow seasons will help recruit thousands of individuals that have never hunted before to help bolster the shrinking numbers of hunters nationwide. Overall, it has been a good and successful year for the crossbow brotherhood. One fact is clear, the more direct and personal contact the hunting community has with the crossbow, the more ineffective the crossbow myths are that have been used to malign this unique hunting tool. It should be obvious to all, the snowball is picking up speed as it rolls towards the bottom of the hill. Theng and hard for the crossbow and the expansion of the crossbow-hunting season, that there will be no rest until all states and provinces accept this unique implement as just one more option for the bowhunting season.
It should also be noted that Ohio, Arkansas and Ontario have allowed crossbows during archery season for nearly 30 years. Wyoming, British Columbia and the North West Territories for about twenty years.