Update: Whatever happened to the youth hunting bill?

This session, we followed several hearings on a bill to require that children under age 14 go hunting with an adult. The bill was in response to an incident last year, when an underage hunter and his brother shot and killed a woman hiking during bear season.

Here’s the bill. As you can see at the bottom of the page, the bill, which had the support of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, did not pass. Instead, it was held up in the House in the final days of the Legislative session.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a public hearing on the bill that they’ve brought up similar bills for several sessions. It used to be illegal for youths to hunt unsupervised, but the law was changed as part of a larger reform a decade or so ago, and has never been changed back. For this year, that’s still the case.

So: It is still legal for any minor with a hunting license to hunt without adult supervision.

Here’s a video from one of the public hearings:

Tags: youth hunting