Jul. 09, 2025
HARRISBURG – When Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the House’s poorly-crafted Sunday hunting legislation into law today he completely politicized hunting in Pennsylvania with absolutely zero input from the sportsmen, Rep. David Maloney (R-Berks) said today.
“While supporters of the legislation say the bills’ purposes is only to legalize Sunday hunting, the fact is that this Sunday hunting bill is a complex piece of legislation that deeply alter private property rights in Pennsylvania and does not address the Second Amendment violation in current law,” Maloney said. “Private property rights and the right to self-defense are among the pillars on which America was founded.”
“The bill signed into law by the governor today increases the penalties for trespass but continues to allow anyone claiming to be looking for their “hunting” dog to enter your property without permission. This new law will increase dangerous confrontations between hunters and landowners.
“The desire to increase hunting opportunities for some will be the inevitable loss of opportunities for others. Under federal law, waterfowl and migratory hunting days will be reduced significantly as soon as one Sunday is scheduled for migratory birds.
“This new law also leaves in place the current violation of Second Amendment rights by requiring a person who is searching for their dog to leave their gun in the woods somewhere. Also, leaving a gun unattended is incredibly careless and exposes one to liability concerns.
“What so offended me in this whole process is that we had an opportunity to fix these issues, but the Senate and the Democrats would not engage in discussions or amendments to protect our constitutional rights.
“The legislation also clearly violates the General Assembly’s Single Subject Rule which requires legislation to deal with only one main issue. The logic of this is to avoid complexity in bills to avoid any hidden provisions that legislators or even the voters may miss when reading the proposed law. As I have said throughout this debate, the devil is in the details.”
Representative David Maloney
130th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Charles Lardner
717.260.6161
clardner@pahousegop.com
RepMaloney.com