Florida’s Proposed Protection of Hunting and Fishing Amendment

AmmoLand ^ | July 1, 2024 | Dean Weingarten

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The Florida State Legislature has proposed a Right to Hunt and Fish amendment to the Florida State Constitution. The Amendment will appear on the November 5, 2024 election ballot as Amendment 2. The amendment will require a supermajority of 60% of the vote to approve the measure. The amendment reads as follows:

SECTION 28.

Fishing, hunting, and the taking of fish and wildlife.—Fishing, hunting, and the taking of fish and wildlife, including by the use of traditional methods, shall be preserved forever as a public right and preferred means of responsibly managing and controlling fish and wildlife. This section does not limit the authority granted to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission under Section 9 of Article IV.

The first state to protect hunting and fishing in its constitution was Vermont in 1777. Here is Vermont’s version:

§ 67. [Hunting; fowling and fishing]

The inhabitants of this State shall have liberty in seasonable times, to hunt and fowl on the lands they hold, and on other lands not inclosed, and in like manner to fish in all boatable and other waters (not private property) under proper regulations, to be made and provided by the General Assembly.

The limitations on government provided by the federal and state constitutions, as well as the abundance of fish and game, showed the amendment in Vermont was ahead of its time.

After World War II, increasing urbanization and the Disneyfication of animals in the public mind led to a rise in attitudes against hunting and fishing. Twenty-two more states codified protections of the right to hunt and fish into their state constitutions, beginning with Alabama in 1996.

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It is not clear how effective such constitutional amendments will be. When the Wisconsin Constitutional Amendment (Section 25) protecting the right to keep and bear arms was passed in 1998, activists who had worked for the amendment for many years, cheered. In 2003, the far left Wisconsin Supreme Court essentially nullified Section 25, saying the people did not really understand what they were voting for. Constitutions are only as good as governments are willing to enforce them.

The philosophy of Progressivism views any limitation on government power as illegitimate.