SRC-SEW S.C.R. 28 77(R)   BILL ANALYSIS


Senate Research Center   S.C.R. 28
77R8393 MTD-DBy: Brown, J. E. "Buster"
Natural Resources
3/21/2001
As Filed


DIGEST

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the harvesting of migratory
game birds for subsequent resale, or "market hunting," was widespread, and
this method led to federal regulation to eliminate the practice in all 50
states.  One regulation adopted to curtail this practice limits the number
of shells a shotgun can hold to no more than three and requires shotgun
magazine to have a plug to effect the three-shell limit.  In the ensuing
years, additional regulations have been enacted to protect migratory game
birds, such as the current federal and state daily or seasonal bag limits
that regulate the number of game birds that can be killed or possessed by a
hunter, making the three-shell limit magazine plug requirement unnecessary
and archaic.  Enforcing outdated regulations wastes limited law enforcement
resources that could be better utilized enforcing other hunting laws, such
as bag limits; a game bird wounded by a third shot that cannot subsequently
be killed by a fourth shot suffers an inhumane death and is a waste of game
resources; and the greater frequency of loading a shotgun necessitated by
the three-shell limit creates a safety hazard for the hunter.  Because
migratory game birds can be protected by other federal and state
regulations, the enforcement of the three-shell limit and magazine plug
requirement is no longer necessary and should be discontinued. 

PURPOSE

As proposed, S.C.R. 28 submits the following resolutions:

Provides that the 77th Texas Legislature respectfully urges the United
States Congress to repeal the federal regulation relating to the
three-shell limit and the magazine plug requirement found in 50 C.F.R.
Section 20.21.  Provides that the Texas secretary of state is to forward
official copies of this resolution to certain parties with the request that
this resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
memorial to the United States Congress.