[fabsroman]

I was reading through Maryland law on waterfowl hunting, and I mean to tell you that there are some really stupid laws out there.

First dumb law:

(d)(1) A person may not hunt wild waterfowl from a boat that is propelled by a motor or under sail. (This one I understand).


(2) A person may shoot and immediately retrieve lawfully wounded or killed wild waterfowl while in a boat if all forward progress of the boat has ceased and the motor has been shut off. (Why does all foward progress of the boat have to cease and why does the motor need to be turned off? Why can't a person just use a net to scoop the bird up?).

I read Maryland DNR's Hunting regs and it appears that you guys are right. Here is what they say:

Field Possession Limit
You may possess no more than one daily bag limit while in the field or returning from the field to your vehicle, hunting camp, or home.

Possession Limit
The maximum number of migratory game birds of a single species or combination of species permitted to be possessed by any one person.

Now, here is why this makes absolutely no sense. Based upon the proposed regs for 2006-2007, a person can kill 15 resident canada geese per day from August 1 to September 25 with a possession limit of 30. However, the limit will decrease in November to 8 per person and a 16 bird per day limit. How about the guy who might come here on a 2 day resident bird hunt in November and he is bringing 16 birds back to his home somewhere else that only has a 10 bird possession limit. How about the guy that comes to western Maryland from Maryland's Eastern Shore where the per day limit is 2 geese a day during the migratory season, yet it is 8 birds a day in western Maryland during the migratory season. If that person kills his 8 birds in western Maryland, he has to eat 4 of them before he crosses the county line to get back home. Otherwise, he is breaking the law.

How do law makers expect people not to break laws when they make them so completely stupid. What really bugs me is that not enough people are sophisticated enough to complain about this sort of stuff.

For instance, I told my brother about the "assault waepons" ban that Maryland is proposing, but I don't think he has the least bit of an idea of how to write his representative, even though he hates the bill. Therefore, Maryland's representatives will never know his position.

If I find time tonight, I am going to write my representatives about this stupid possession law and about the stupid law above requiring that a boat motor be turned off and the boat's progress completely stopped before retrieving a bird. Sheer stupidity in my book.

Now, if anybody can try to help me understand why these laws are not stupid, I would truly appreciate it before I make an idiot out of myself.