I have friends who are archery hunters. Neither one of them can have a firearm but the both are required to have a hunting license to hunt with a bow.
The two of them made mistakes and paid the price for their transgressions. Neither one of them have any kind of violent history.
They are doing nothing illegal. So what are you going to do with the thousands of archery hunters who are doing everything by the rules?
You will have to change the system so they can get an archery only license without being hassled. Even though they are felons they have not lost the right to hunt, only the right to have a gun.
You know I never really thought too much about it, but come to think of it I had an employee who apparently served some time. We were sitting around at coffee time lamenting our life of squalid poverty when I jokingly said, 'you could always folly a guy down an alley,' an obscure reference to a Jack Kerouac novel and he said 'I already tried that and paid the price.'
I didn't ask for details and he didn't provide anymore. But most people I know hunt and he was among those people. I pulled his truck out of a mudhole he shouldn't have tried driving into one season.
I wonder if that's why he changed his name? I never had any fears about it him, before or after his 'confession' and never thought about his hunting with a rifle until now.
There was an incident in Michigan a few years back where a lady was shot during deer season. Initially, it was believed to have been a stray bullet. Upon further investigation, it was revealed that her husband had killed her so he could carry on with another woman who didn't want anything to do with him. A book was written about the incident, called The Sweater Letter. He almost got away with it.
At one time, we had an archery only license.