OLYMPIA — With memories of a tragedy on their minds, lawmakers are on course this year to bar young hunters from going out alone.
On Thursday, the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee considered a bill that sets 14 as the minimum age for a boy or a girl to hunt alone.
Anyone under that age must be accompanied by an adult who is a licensed hunter, under the proposed legislation. It also requires they be within earshot or eyesight of the adult at all times.
“Young hunters supervised by experienced hunters are safer hunters, much safer,” Mike Cenci, deputy chief of enforcement for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said at a public hearing Thursday.
Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, the bill’s author, is trying to restore rules that were in effect in Washington until 1994. That year, the Legislature erased any restrictions on young hunters other than to require them to have a license.
He’s pushing a related bill to make sure people wear fluorescent orange clothing when they are on public lands where hunting is allowed.
Both pieces of legislation emerged in the wake of the shooting death in August of an Oso woman. She was allegedly killed by a 14-year-old Concrete boy who was hunting bear with his 16-year-old brother.
In Thursday’s hearing no one mentioned the death of Pamela Almli, who was killed while hiking on a popular trail in Skagit County. She was shot in the head when she bent over to put a jacket into a backpack. The boy has been charged as a juvenile with first-degree manslaughter.
Almli is the only nonhunter to die in 515 gun-related incidents involving hunters dating back to 1980, Cenci said. In that period there were 39 fatalities.
As written, the proposed law would not have prevented the boy from hunting with his brother that day because he was 14 at the time, said Tom Davis, legislative liaison for Fish and Wildlife.
In Thursday’s hearing, representatives of hunters and hikers agreed on the value of adult supervision for younger hunters but disagreed on what the minimum age should be for hunting alone.
Ed Owens, legislative director of the Hunters Heritage Council, said the vast majority of the 57,000 people he represents consider the proposed change to 14 as the right thing to do.
“They think it’s prudent and believe the legislation should be enacted,” he said.
Cenci and Jonathon Guzzo of the Washington Trails Association said they’d prefer the minimum age be 16.
“We think 14 is too young to be allowed to hunt accompanied,” Guzzo said afterward.
Cenci said a measure getting prepared in the state Senate may set 16 as the minimum age.
“If it ends up 14, we could support it, because it is better than what we have now,” he said.
Rep. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, a committee member whose district includes Oso and Concrete, said he’s favoring Blake’s bill law at this stage.
“I just want to make sure we’re not taking anyone’s Second Amendment rights away,” he said.
The committee is scheduled to vote on the bill Thursday.
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