Group: Sunday hunt could bring 2,600 jobs, $155M to West Virginia

Making hunting legal on Sundays across West Virginia could create about 2,600 jobs and spur up to $155 million in additional economic activity each year, a representative of a national sportsmen’s advocacy group told lawmakers Tuesday.

“West Virginia is not a destination hunting state, but it very well could be with fewer confusing laws for nonresidents,” said John Culclasure, Appalachian states coordinator for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. “Confusing county-by-county Sunday hunting rules discourage hunters from hunting in West Virginia. In one county it’s legal, in the next, it’s not.”

Twenty-two of 55 counties in West Virginia already allow Sunday hunting on private land. Voters in five counties — Kanawha, Monongalia, Berkeley, Mercer and Wood — will decide during the Nov. 8 election whether to remove bans on Sunday hunting.

The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation and the National Rifle Association are urging West Virginia legislators to pass a law next year that would legalize Sunday hunting statewide — preferably on private and public land.

See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-politics/20160920/group-sunday-hunt-could-bring-2600-jobs-155m-to-wv