[apmaurosr]

NJOA CF Release: 6/25/15


“Apprentice firearm hunting license and apprentice bow and arrow license”goes to Governor to be signed into law! A great day for sportsmen and women of New Jersey!


NJOA CF is pleased to announce that a hunting bill supported by NJOA CF council members, creating an apprentice firearm hunting license and apprentice bow and arrow license, has been approved by the full senate and assembly. The bill now heads to the Governor to be signed into law. Bill numbers: S573/A2443



The NJOA CF council, and outdoorsmen and women, thank the following Sponors and Co-Sponsors for their support. A special thanks goes to Senate President Sweeney (D) and Speaker Prieto (D) for allowing the bills to be heard in their respective houses, and to Leader Bramnick (R) and Leader Kean (R) for their support.



More details about the bill, including the roll call vote from the full senate and assembly, and a convenient way to ask Governor Christie to sign the bill will be distributed from NJOA shortly.

Senate Sponsors:
Smith, Bob (D) - as Primary Sponsor
Sweeney, Stephen M. (D) - as Primary Sponsor
Beck, Jennifer (R) - as Co-Sponsor
Oroho, Steven V. (R) - as Co-Sponsor
Norcross, Donald (D) - as Co-Sponsor


Assembly Sponsors:
Burzichelli, John J. (D) - as Primary Sponsor
Space, Parker (R) - as Primary Sponsor
McHose, Alison Littell (R) - as Primary Sponsor

​

 

[ShurShot07]

Another good job by the NJOA Thanks for all you do for the men & woman who hunt & fish in NJ You really do "have our backs"

 

[vdep217]

As long as its not written in the original form.. the original way it was written it would allow someone with no experience to obtain a license than take his friends out with no license.. this way would pose major saftey issues in the field.. as long as it has a time frame the mentor must have had a valid license I'm all for it

 

[knowyourlimit]

Kept licking the boots of Sweeney and the word "firearm" will be a thing of the past in this state.


Sweeney needs to be recalled, not thanked and put on a pedestal.

 

[Zone9DeerSlayer]

Kept licking the boots of Sweeney and the word "firearm" will be a thing of the past in this state.


Sweeney needs to be recalled, not thanked and put on a pedestal.

That's the plan for tomorrow morning in his district. We have an army heading out tomorrow in his district to collect signatures.

 

[willemo]

So as I am reading this, the "mentored"' youth must be 10 years old or more. How is this any different then a regular youth license? In PA its "youths under 11", which means my 9 year old.

 

[Whiskers]

They waited long enough for this not to be a hot button issue, and slid it thru notice how they kept it quiet. It's pretty much the same bill as last time except:

(b) The resident's apprentice firearm hunting license shall19 authorize its holder to hunt only with hounds and firearms and only20 when accompanied by a holder, above 21 years of age, of a regular21 resident’s or nonresident’s firearm hunting license. A fee of $26.5022 and an issuance fee of $1.00 shall be charged for a resident’s23 apprentice firearm hunting license, except that a person above the24 age of 65 years shall be charged a fee of $14.50 and an issuance fee

The previous bill the one Coop and I defeated, didn't charge the apprentice for the license. it's all about the money!!

Ant and his Idiots have struck again.

 

[TheMadGreek]

Ap moron and his pals have done nothing but waste sportsman $'s

 

[smittty]

Ap moron and his pals have done nothing but waste sportsman $'s

not only waste it but now we have spend more money and time trying to undo something that they help do with our $$$ ..If you get my drift'''....''and to make matters worst the still claim they speak for us... makes me sick

 

[Pathman]

Oh jeez, now there are three of you?!!! Maybe you "three wisemen" can explain why you prevented youngsters from getting a taste of the outdoors, I'm not seeing the logic there.

 

[smittty]

Oh jeez, now there are three of you?!!! Maybe you "three wisemen" can explain why you prevented youngsters from getting a taste of the outdoors, I'm not seeing the logic there.

ther is a hell of a lot more then three of us ..as a matter of fact there are over 1500 of us that took the day of from work and family time to travel to south jersey today to try and fix something that they help do with our dollars ...I would like to think and am pretty sure the number of guys like us three is some wheres around 30.000 witch I believe to be a low number so I think you the minarity here

 

[maximus]

Maybe you "three wisemen" can explain why you prevented youngsters from getting a taste of the outdoors, I'm not seeing the logic there.

Not for nothing but who is "preventing youngsters from getting a taste of the outdoors"? Taking a kid to get a taste of the outdoors doesn't mean the only way it can be done is gun in hand. My daughter has just turned 10 and for the last two years she's tagged along rabbit,pheasant and duck hunting. She shows interest now and will be taking the hunter safety course. This is the proper way. No kid should be afield with a gun without taking the Hunter Ed course and learning proper safety training. Just think about a kid going out to a WMA area during pheasant season not really knowing or understanding the 3 basic rules like...Know your target AND BEYOND. If a kid needs to have a "gun in hand" just to get involved they're probably going for the wrong reason to begin with.

 

[Pathman]

Wait, that was yesterday's discussion. Today I'm asking about the mentor deal.

 

[willemo]

Originally Posted by Pathman

Oh jeez, now there are three of you?!!! Maybe you "three wisemen" can explain why you prevented youngsters from getting a taste of the outdoors, I'm not seeing the logic there.

Its not about preventing youngsters from getting a taste of the outdoors; it's about making the law right from the getgo. IMO it's a watered down (dare I say "feel good") version of what it should be and if done right, will reach far more youths than what is being proposed.

 

[Hit Em Nasty]

Oh jeez, now there are three of you?!!! Maybe you "three wisemen" can explain why you prevented youngsters from getting a taste of the outdoors, I'm not seeing the logic there.

Who's preventing youngsters from enjoying the outdoors? What kids can't tag along with mentors and enjoy the outdoors before they take a test? This is just going along with the "everybody wins and instant gratification" of todays youth! I enjoyed the outdoors as a youngster tagging along with my father before I was able to hunt like most of us did, so why is it different now?

 

[smittty]

the only reason Anthony posted this here is to feel the air if you know what I mean ...he wants the guys on here to think he is doing something ...All I can say is to each there own but he will never see a dime of mine ....

 

[Zone9DeerSlayer]

I'm saying 50 pages at least...[emoji1]

 

[Pathman]

I'm saying 50 pages at least...

Ain't nobody got time for dat!

I enjoyed the outdoors as a youngster tagging along with my father before I was able to hunt like most of us did, so why is it different now?

So did I, and i wouldn't have traded it for the world, but things are different now, I will explain while addressing another poster.

Not for nothing but who is "preventing youngsters from getting a taste of the outdoors"? Taking a kid to get a taste of the outdoors doesn't mean the only way it can be done is gun in hand. My daughter has just turned 10 and for the last two years she's tagged along rabbit,pheasant and duck hunting. She shows interest now and will be taking the hunter safety course. This is the proper way. No kid should be afield with a gun without taking the Hunter Ed course and learning proper safety training. Just think about a kid going out to a WMA area during pheasant season not really knowing or understanding the 3 basic rules like...Know your target AND BEYOND. If a kid needs to have a "gun in hand" just to get involved they're probably going for the wrong reason to begin with.

I can't believe I'm doing this, just don't think this opens up a dialogue between us and all will be warm and fuzzy maxi, this is a very, very (did I say very?) temporary truce!

That being said, I don't disagree that safety is paramount, but that's what the experienced mentor is there for. But allow me to give you my perspective on this, and I believe this is where some of you may be just a bit shortsighted on this one.

Max, your daughter is a lucky little girl that she has a dad that knows the outdoors and is able to put in the time to mentor her and show her the ropes. But all kids aren't as fortunate to have parents or grandparents who hunt, and not to mention the ones with no parents.

Let's say for argument sake, a kid doesn't have parents who hunt, typically the next logical mentor would be an uncle/aunt/cousin etc., right? Well, how much "quality time" do you think relatives have to mentor another youngster besides their own? Some might, but I would venture to say it's not near as much time as Max spent with his kids, or I with mine. And as it stands now, that mentor would have to spend even more time (which we already established the lack thereof) preparing the youngster for the hunter ed class before knowing if the kid is really into hunting or not. So if a mentor/apprentice type program were implemented, a greater percentage of youngsters would have the chance to experience the outdoors. If the bug bites, they will of course go on and take their hunter ed course and become another licensed hunter in NJ.

While we're discussing percentages, let me make probably the biggest point in all this. As another poster mentioned, back when he/we/I were kids, we went out with our dads, etc., "what's different now?" he asked.
What's different now is that only 1 to 2% of NJ residents hunt, that's the difference! I don't know the exact percentage back when he/we were kids, but i guarantee it was higher than that!

So, my logic here is this, with <2% of resident hunters in NJ, how many families do you think have the knowledge to teach their kids to hunt, or even allow them to experience a day outdoors hunting? How many kids are not being recruited because they have zero exposure to the outdoors? How do we increase the exposure for a much greater percentage of kids?

How we do it is, we get them outdoors, give them a little taste of what hunting is like, but without all the formal training and regulations, at least initially!

It's all about recruitment guys, it's all about exposing new people to the sport so that it doesn't fade away through unawareness or indifference, it's about making it easy to bring up the percentage of hunters in NJ so that the pols don't continually look at the <2% and say "so what if they don't like me, they're only 2% of the population!"

I know, I hate saying it myself, but it's the "new" big picture you have to look at fellas, the old days are gone...

 

[maximus]

I can't believe I'm doing this, just don't think this opens up a dialogue between us and all will be warm and fuzzy maxi, this is a very, very (did I say very?) temporary truce!

[eyeroll] John John John [SMH] I in no way posted to try and "open up a dialogue" between us. But since you had to throw the quote above out instead of simply proceeding with the topic at hand like any intelligent man would let me be clear here... I have no use for people of your ilk and you really need to get a grip on the fact that you are really not as important as your ego leads you to believe. That being said, I understand what you are trying to point to in your post however nothing about "how" to get youth involved justifies them having to carry a firearm to experience the outdoors. If they choose to tag along, the bug will or will not bite. If it does then those that wanted them to tag along should surely take the time to bring them to a Hunter Ed course. If they are not willing to do that they wouldn't do it after an apprentice program either.

 

[Whiskers]

I want more kids in the outdoors, but do it right. They still are letting someone take as many kids out as they want, should be one on one, one gun.

And they are no charging the youth $26.50 for the license!!