Last week representatives from various sporting and state organizations took turns orating their opinions about Sunday hunting. To me, the day of the week is not the heart of the issue; the trespass law is.

Trespass laws and gun laws have a lot in common. No matter how much you strengthen gun laws and trespass laws, people who are not law-abiding citizens will ignore them. Meanwhile, due to the acts of others who don’t abide by the law, law-abiding citizens must fight hard to retain their rights.

I’ve read the rhetoric about the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau being the strongest and most vocal of the organizations against Sunday hunting. I learned about the main sticking point: the PFB wants the trespass law to include language requiring people hunting on private land to have written permission from the landowner.

Many representatives from sportsman’s organizations, pardon the pun, are up in arms about that. Someone needs to explain to me why that is. I’m having trouble understanding why anyone would oppose such a requirement.

I have access to some private land. If I needed to get written permission to hunt there, it would go something like this - I’d make a phone call, explain the new requirement, and mail a permission paper, along with a self-addressed, stamped envelope. It would not be a big deal at all.

I believe that the debate over allowing opening day of the firearms season on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and allowing hunting on selected Sundays during hunting seasons, boils down to the issue of trespass and the disrespect of private property by people who have purchased a hunting license. And the issues of trespass and disrespect of private property are hopelessly tangled in a style of hunting called the Deer Drive.

Although some archery hunters may sneak in and out of a property, because of the limitations of their equipment they don’t typically engage in deer drives. It’s the firearms hunters that travel in, well, packs. They don’t care where property lines are or who owns the property – they were raised “pushing” certain pieces of land and will continue to do so.

Unfortunately, these are the hunters that the non-hunting public visualizes when discussions turn to whether or not to allow firearms hunting on Sundays. For people who don’t hunt, their main awareness of hunting is the part of it they see and remember - a bunch of vehicles parked in one area, where a number of blaze orange clad hunters are preparing to make a foray into a section of woods. The non-hunting public hears lots of shouting and multiple shots, and I believe comes away with a very negative opinion about hunting.

I want to be clear. I absolutely love hunting. I hunt with a bow and with firearms.

I’ve been fortunate to have been able to hunt deer in other states. Deer drives are not permitted in any of those states. In fact, Pennsylvania may be the only state where hunting using deer drives is allowed.

And Pennsylvania is also one of few states where citizens can’t hunt deer on Sundays.

Just a coincidence? I don’t think so.

I’m a hunter, but I wish that before hunting deer on Sunday becomes lawful, the practice of hunting deer by driving them becomes unlawful. What do other hunters think? What does the non-hunting public think? We want to hear from you.