It is not illegal to walk boundary trails or firebreaks!!!



If you are pulled off the road and parked on your own property you are 100% legal!!!



There is nothing against the law about walking up on a timber operation while hunting and getting a ticket for it!!!!



No, I don't believe so. If you really believe half of the stuff that you are saying, you have more problems than a hunting violation ticket!!!

Just because you have been ticketed for a hunting violation that was clearly avoidable does not mean that you can start making up things. Everytime i get on here and read the comments that have been posted I fall out of my chair from laughing so hard.

MT, it is obivious to me that you are having as much fun with this forum as I am.

However your opinion does matter, as do all of ours.

Please explain how you would prosecute this case if you were the DA.

Please explain how you can determine BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT that he was hunting.

I think you will find that if indeed he was hunting BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT, then we are all hunting from the road if we have a loaded gun while driving home. Or we are hunting at night if we walk back to our truck with a loaded gun.

I agree it seems pretty simple. Unload your gun. You are not hunting. However he has the Consitutional Right to a loaded gun. IF A LOADED GUN CONSITUTES HUNTING, THEN IT SHOULD BE WRITTEN IN THE DEFINITION OF "HUNTING"

Make me believe your argument. And I will shut up. Yea I have a hard on for the GW's right now. I got a stupid ticket. But I really think that this ticket is pushing a major VIOLATION of our rights. YOU GIVE A INCH AND THEY TAKE A MILE.

anyway since we are having so much fun with this. Give it a try. OH AND PLEASE REMEMBER, WE ARE HAVING FUN WITH THIS. BUCKY IS NOT.

Why is a railroad right of way any different than a courthouse, a school, certain areas of airports, an airplane, and numerous other places that restrict a person's "right" to "bear arms in defense of himself and the state"? The preceding question has been asked in various forms in the 8 pages of this discussions and you guys have dodged it like you were in a presidential debate.

There are all kinds of court decisions affirming restrictions on constitutional rights. There is an awful lot of quoting of judicial rulings in the pages of this post, so you guys would appear to agree that courts are the arbitror of what is or is not constitutional.

And quoting 49ers's quote:

"PRIMA-FACIE, EVIDENCE, CASE
Latin for "at first view."

Evidence that is sufficient to raise a presumption of fact or to establish the fact in question unless rebutted."

In this case you have somebody participating in a scheduled WMA hunt, has a hunting license (or is exempt from the requirement), a WMA permit (do not know if there are exemptions for senior citizens/disabled veterans), a loaded firearm, the hunter orange required for hunters participating in a scheduled WMA hunt, ...

Seriously, if you were not bitter at the AL DCNR, would you really, honestly say a person exhibiting the characteristics above was not hunting except for the fact that he was on a RR right of way where hunting is not allowed? If he was 51 yards from the RR right of way would he have been hunting?

WMD, what exactly did he do that is included in the definition of HUNTING.

Once again he was charged with hunting!!!!! Not tresspassing on the railroad property!!!

and just one more question. If it is hunting season, and you go hunting, when you are walking back to your truck and you are almost there, has there ever been a time when you weren't hunting?

Ever?

you never stopped before you got back and shot a target. You never made a phone call on your way back. you never stopped and took a piss, you never talked to your kid. you never kicked a rock. According to you and several others, there can never be a time that you are not hunting. If you are there then you are hunting. Well then what about before the season. you ever have a gun with you when you are building blinds, working on green fields. Were you hunting then.

WHATEVER!!!

and since when do you have to walk thru a court house, school, airport to get back to your truck while you been hunting?

So what you are saying is "If he was there after dark, he would be guilty of NIGHT HUNTING and HUNTING FROM A ROAD"

how can you make a difference of the two, if you look at it the way you are looking at it.

Mteague,

They are all published in the 2010-2011 WMA regulati0n book.

To hunt or discharge firearms within 150 yards of any camping area, dwelling, dam or timber operation, 100
yards of any paved public road or highway, or from within the right-of-way of any developed U.S. Forest
Service road (paved or unpaved) which is open for vehicular traffic; within a posted safety zone or on Sunday
within one/half mile of any church.

Here is a link to the whole publcation since you obviously missed it.

http://www.outdooralabama.com/hunting/wildlife-areas/2010-2011wmaschedulefinal.pdf

You may be right on the boundry. The regulations actualy states no erected treestands. I always thought it was no hunting there as well.

It always amazes me when

For someone who understands all the hunting laws in Alabama, one would think you would have known to unload your gun before hunting within 50 yds of a R/R!!!!


You keep stating you were not hunting the day you recieved your ticket. Well I have always been told that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it must be a duck!!!

I hate that you got a ticket but sometimes you have to take responsibilities for your actions. Should have unloaded that gun.

I guess it depends on where you are hunting and where you are parked. When do you have to use a railroad to get back to your truck?

But, according to you, a constitutional right is a constitutional right. Shouldn't matter if you are trespassing (for which Bucky was not charged and is not the subject of 9-11-257) disguised as a deer hunter during a scheduled WMA hunt or if a person is in a court house, school, or airport. The point that you obviously did not get is that your constitutional rights can have their scope limited depending on where you are and what you are doing. To you, Bucky, and 49er, Bucky was just exercising his constitutional right to "bear arms in defense of himself and the state" while to the GW it was PRIMA-FACIE EVIDENCE of hunting from a RR.

just suck it up and pay it

No, sir. Of course I don't think you are lying, 49er. I've never thought that you have ever lied. I thought you were being a bit tough on Game Wardens at times. After your reply, I feel much, much better about it. You rightly and nicely replied and I appreciate it. Peace to you.

MT,



I guess you'll hate it too if you go to Perdido WMA and get your own ticket. If you do as you stated above, that's probably what will happen, and you will be the guilty one instead of Bucky.

The difference in you and him, you will have unloaded your gun 50 yards too late before you get to your truck if it's near a paved road, and your fine will be much less than his for committing essentially the same "crime".






Should have unloaded your gun.


Then the game warden will grin and say, "GOTCHA"

The fine has been paid since I appeared in court the first time. I simply dissagree with the officer's definition of 9-11-257 and will continue to fight the citation.

The law is vague and overbroad as stated by the Honorable Judge Hodnette. That is why the AG's opininion came into existence. Judge Hodnette of Mobile county wrote the AG and asked for an opininion on the definition. Judge Hodnette felt that 9-11-257 was so confusing that it should be invalid by default.

The reason this discussion has gone on as long as it has is due directly to the wording of the statute. This applies to many of our hunting regulations. The statute leaves room to support both sides.

Commissioner Lawley did not even include railroad in the 2010-2011 published hunting regulations. Commisioner Lawley included the rest of 9-11-257 and for whatever reason omitted railroad. If this publcation is capable of standing in any court without further evidence the publication should be accurate as to the regulations.

The copy of the 2010-2011 regulations as signed by Comissioner Lawley. Which is in fact the official copy, is not the same as the the supposedly official copy published on the DCNR official website. Exactly which copy of the regulations do you want hunters to follow? Or maybe we will allow law enforcement to simply mix doctrine as they see fit to enforce law.

"Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure"

Thomas Jefferson

Vague laws involve three basic dangers: First, they may harm the innocent by failing to warn of the offense. Second, they encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement because vague laws delegate enforcement and statutory interpretation to individual government officials and law enforcement officers. Third, because citizens will take extra precautions to avoid violating the law, vague laws inhibit our individual freedom.


Happy Easter Everyone it is going to be a beautiful day here in South Alabama.

the publication with the ads in it will NOT stand in court as the official rules, regulations, laws.

I don't know why they don't just print the regs/laws as they are actually written.

troy

Well you may be right WMD. But I argue that if indeed you are right. then that gives the GW way to much authority. IF A LOADED WEAPON AND THE FACT THAT HE WAS INDEED THERE TO HUNT. IF THAT IN IT SELF MAKES HIM GUILTY. THEN I AM GUILTY OF EVERY LAW THEY HAVE. IF THE GAME WARDENS OPINION IS LAW. BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE SAYING. then what is to say that the same GW cannot right you up for hunting at night, just because your weapon was loaded.

I mean it is dark, you came to the woods to hunt. you got on camo, you bought a hunting lic. you got on orange. You have a grunt call with you. SIR I THE ALMIGHTY GW PROCLAIM YOU TO BE HUNTING.

HERE IS YOUR TICKET.

x 2, Troy.

troy,



It's clear that the law requires it, but nobody is holding them accountable. I reqested the publication required by law from our new Attorney General after I was told at DCNR Headquarters by Cpt. Roleau to ask there because they didn't have it. I got no reply from the Attorney General.

It's not right to charge hunters with nit-picking violations with stiff fines when the agency leaders don't comply with the law themselves and then get away with it scot-free.

I beat if Bucky's name was Cameron Newton, we would at least have about half the people on here that thinks he is NOT GUILTY!!!!

GOOD LUCK TO CAM, by the way from a LSU fan, we are just mad that we didn't pay him.

That damn Miles, he knew we needed a Qtrback.

Huhh!!!

I was browsing thru our state constitution today, and I thought about you, Danny.

Constitution of Alabama 1901







Workin' in a coal mine, going on down, down, working in a coal mine, OOOPPS, about to slip down, OOOOWWWW!!....

I read thru the 16 pages of thread today and must admit I am confused. If Bucky was walking back to his truck and the pocession of a rifle didn't have anything to do with with his ticket, he was "hunting". Not tresspassing on RR ROW. Slowly walking, looking into the woods, "hunting" was the charge. If he had not had a rifle or any other weapon, then under that clouded GW violation definition he could have been guilty of "hunting" even if he did not have any kind of weapon?

Latest Update,

Showed up this moring ready for trial. The LEO was not there and the DA was not ready for trial. So Baldwin county rolled it out until sometime in September. This is the 3rd time that the DA has not been ready to proceed. Don't know. They don't want to try it and the judge will not null proc it, maybe they just plan on leaving it hanging forever. Doesn't seem right.
One thing I have discovered from circuit court. It would have been cheaper to get drunk and run down a deer at night than to walk down a railroad track.