Constitutional Amendment: Boom or Trap?

by Charley Davis: Madison County KY 912 Coordinator


On November 6 Kentuckians will have the opportunity to vote on what has been termed an amendment to protect hunting. Many believe that there are coming threats to hunting and fishing rights. Possibly they are right but that begs the question as to whether this amendment will provide the wall of protection they seek. Maybe not.


If one considers why we have a constitution it becomes clear that its main purpose is to control government and see that it does not become tyrannical. The language commonly used to protect rights usually reads like “the government shall not make any laws contrary to the right of ‘blank.” It does not say that the government provides the right, the right is assumed; therefore the language is to protect the public from its government. Now let’s consider the language of this amendment.


Here is how it will appear on the November ballot: “Are you in favor of amending the Kentucky Constitution to state that the citizens of Kentucky have the personal right to hunt, fish and harvest wildlife, subject to laws and regulations that promote conservation and preserve the future of hunting and fishing, and to state that public hunting and fishing shall be preferred means of managing and controlling wildlife?”


That sentence sounds very benign but one has to look further. This amendment guarantees nothing except that there will be more laws and regulations. These laws and regulations could just as easily be used against Kentuckians as for Kentuckians. The use of the word conservation is entirely ambiguous and opens the door to radical control of our forests. As to the rights its purports to save, those rights are already in place, the licensing regulations are already in place, nothing more needs to be done. This amendment is a trap.