Legislators consider lowering hunting age

Midday update

By Chris Andrews
Lansing State Journal

Shantell Coats' 7-year-old daughter Sarah is itching to hunt.

"She heard you can hunt deer in Texas when you're 7, and she wants to go down there," said Coats, a Springport resident who has grown up around hunting and hunted herself the past two years.

Coats supports legislation in the state House that would lower the age for firearm hunting of deer, elk and bear from 14 to 12 on private land with adult supervision.

State Rep. Scott Hummel, sponsor of the bill, hopes to have the law enacted by April to give the state Department of Natural Resources time to get the system in place for next year's hunting season. The DNR supports the concept and would like to expand it to include public land as well.

Michigan licenses about 1 million hunters, but that number has been declining by about 1 percent annually in recent years, DNR spokeswoman Mary Dettloff said.

License fees and federal excise taxes on guns and ammunition help pay for the state's conservation efforts. Reductions in funds force cutbacks in those areas, she said.