P.L. 1996, CHAPTER 97, approved August 6, 1996

Senate No. 720

An Act concerning the use of firearms while trapping on Sundays and amending R.S.23:4-24.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. R.S.23:4-24 is amended to read as follows:

    23:4-24. No person shall hunt with a hound or with firearms or weapons of any kind, or carry a gun in the woods or fields or on the waters on Sunday, under a penalty of $20.00 for each offense; except that this section shall not apply to any person hunting raccoon between midnight on Saturday and sunrise on Sunday during the season prescribed in section 23:4-1 of this Title or to a person possessing a valid and proper rifle permit licensed to trap fur-bearing animals pursuant to the provisions of R.S.23:3-1 using a .22 caliber rifle and .22 caliber short rimfire cartridges to humanely dispatch legally trapped animals. This section shall not prevent farm land owners, lessees actually occupying or farming the land, members of their immediate families, or their farm employees from hunting and destroying at any time and in any manner crows, woodchuck, fox and vermin on that land.

(cf: P.L.1959, c.71, s.1)

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

This bill amends R.S.23:4-24, a statute that prohibits hunting on Sundays, to permit persons licensed to trap fur-bearing animals pursuant to the provisions of R.S.23:3-1, to use a .22 caliber rifle with .22 caliber short rimfire cartridges to shoot and kill legally trapped animals on Sundays. The bill requires the animal be killed in a humane manner.

    Under current law, trapping is permitted every day of the week and the use of firearms in the field is permitted every day except Sundays. Consequently, trappers are unable to dispatch trapped animals on Sundays in the most humane fashion, which is with a firearm. Under the provisions of the bill, trappers would be able to use firearms and ammunition of limited power on Sundays only for that purpose.

Permits use of .22 short cartridge by trappers on Sundays.