By Brown                                              S.C.R. No. 28
         77R8393 MTD-D                           
                                CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
 1-1           WHEREAS, During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the
 1-2     harvesting of migratory game birds for subsequent resale, or
 1-3     "market hunting," was widespread, and this wasteful method led to
 1-4     federal regulations to eliminate the practice in all 50 states; and
 1-5           WHEREAS, One regulation adopted to curtail this practice
 1-6     limits the number of shells a shotgun can hold to no more than
 1-7     three and requires shotgun magazines to have a plug to effect the
 1-8     three-shell limit; and
 1-9           WHEREAS, In the ensuing years, additional regulations have
1-10     been enacted to protect migratory game birds, such as the current
1-11     federal and state daily or seasonal bag limits that regulate the
1-12     number of game birds that can be killed or possessed by a hunter,
1-13     making the three-shell limit and the magazine plug requirement
1-14     unnecessary and archaic; and
1-15           WHEREAS, Enforcing outdated regulations wastes limited law
1-16     enforcement resources that could be better utilized enforcing other
1-17     hunting laws, such as bag limits; and
1-18           WHEREAS, A game bird wounded by a third shot that cannot
1-19     subsequently be killed by a fourth shot suffers an inhumane death
1-20     and is a waste of game resources; and
1-21           WHEREAS, The greater frequency of loading a shotgun
1-22     necessitated by the three-shell limit creates a safety hazard for
1-23     the hunter; and
1-24           WHEREAS, Because migratory game birds can be protected by
 2-1     other federal and state regulations, the enforcement of the
 2-2     three-shell limit and magazine plug requirement is no longer
 2-3     necessary and should be discontinued; now, therefore, be it
 2-4           RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas
 2-5     hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to
 2-6     repeal the federal regulation relating to the three-shell limit and
 2-7     the magazine plug requirement found in 50 C.F.R. Section 20.21;
 2-8     and, be it further
 2-9           RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
2-10     copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
2-11     the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of
2-12     the senate of the United States Congress, and to all members of the
2-13     Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
2-14     resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
2-15     memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.