Arguably, no state embraces its hunting heritage as much as Pennsylvania.

Then, why is Pennsylvania so adamantly against allowing its 1 million sportsmen to enjoy their passion on a Sunday in these harried times?

Is the ban on Sunday hunting an archaic Blue Law that lingers for no good reason?

After all, 35 states permit full hunting on the Sabbath. Another nine allow Sunday hunting with some restrictions.

More than 92 percent of all the hunters outside of Pennsylvania can hunt game on Sundays.

Among its neighbors, New York legalized Sunday hunting years ago. Ohio in 1998 went to full Sunday hunting and Maryland last year threw out a 280-year-old ban. Sunday hunting is allowed on private property with written permission in portions of the state.

West Virginia legalized Sunday hunting in 2001, but in a backlash, a public referendum vote reversed the law in more than two-thirds of the counties.

Pennsylvania does permit Sunday hunting for the relatively few who pursue coyotes, pigeons, crows, foxes and starlings.

But legislators have never come close to extending the privilege that most other hunters in the U.S. enjoy for deer and other game animals.

You can now gamble or fish or buy wicker on a Sunday, but not hunt. Why not?

It's generally believed that farmers are calling the shots and that they want, and deserve, one day of rest without gun retorts echoing through the woods and hunters crawling across their properties.

Yet many farmers clamor for more deer to be killed to reduce crop damage.

Pennsylvania's reluctance to part ways with its Blue Laws is also swayed by religious grounds.

(There's still a state law that prohibits fishing on private property if a landowner doesn't want it.)

Most non-sportsmen's groups - who far outnumber hunters - are no fans of the prospects of Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania.

Birdwatchers, hikers, equestrians, mountain bikers and others who share the woods with hunters in the fall and winter on public lands are less than enthusiastic.

(Sunday hunting advocates respond that 75 percent of all hunting takes place in November and December, when few others venture into the woods.)

And yet, the times may be a-changing ever so slowly.

A handful of bills have been floated in the state House of Representatives.

And a resolution to study the economic impact of Sunday hunting just might get somewhere.

Two Sunday hunting bills, while unlikely to make it out of the House Game and Fisheries Committee for a full vote, nevertheless are elevating the debate.

An intriguing bill by state Rep. Ed Stabeck of Lackawanna County would revoke the section of the Blue Laws that deals with Sunday hunting, thereby throwing it into the laps of the Pennsylvania Game Commission whether to allow Sunday hunting, how often and for what game.

"It's time for Pennsylvania to join the 40 or so states that now accept Sunday hunting as easily as they do Sunday shopping or Sunday baseball, and finally start treating Sunday hunting just like we do every other legal activity on any other day of the week," argues the Pennsylvania Sportsman's Info Center, which is devoted to the cause.

In the face of this what-if, game commission spokesman Jerry Feaser released this statement:

"The Pennsylvania Game Commission does not oppose the legislation to legalize Sunday hunting, but we are not pushing for it either.

"In fact, our Board of Game Commissioners are split - some supporting and others opposing - on this issue, which reflects the current difference of opinion held by many in the General Assembly and public at large.

"This is a matter that must be decided by the Legislature, landowners and hunters. If the legislation is enacted, the agency will seek to implement Sunday hunting when and where appropriate."

Yet another bill before the Game and Fisheries Committee would legalize Sunday hunting in special regulations areas outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh where deer are running amok.

The forces pushing for change argue Sunday hunting would barely be noticed, would provide local economies a shot in the arm and would double the time most hunters have to pursue their beneficial sport.

They question whether rank-and-file farmers really do abhor Sunday hunting.

They ask why a sport legal six days a week shouldn't be allowed on the seventh.

"It's way past time" to legalize Sunday hunting, says Stephen Mohr, a game commissioner from Bainbridge.

Why shouldn't sportsmen be allowed to at least hunt on game lands they paid for and on sparsely populated state forests? he asks.

He doubts whether the majority of the state's farmers really oppose Sunday hunting as the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau insists.

He's surprised and disappointed no one has challenged in court one of the last Blue Laws.

And he can't wait for the door to open just a crack.

"I venture to say that once Sunday hunting has been established, no one will even notice that it occurs," says Mohr.

Fellow game commissioner Greg Isabella from Philadelphia is similarly optimistic.

"I think it's going to happen sooner than we think. I think it will be gradually phased in," he says.

Isabella thinks Sunday hunting would inject more money into local economies than either bird-watching or elk viewing in north-central Pennsylvania.

He thinks it will bring back hunters who have left the sport. And he thinks farmers' main concern over Sunday hunting is over privacy issues, not religion.

That, he says, can be addressed by restricting Sunday hunting to state lands, private property with permission or leased property.

In fact, he expects the Farm Bureau in November to agree to his suggestion to meet with the PGC, state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, sportsmen's groups and legislators to begin the dialogue.

The Governor's Advisory Council for Hunting, Fishing and Conservation voted in May to endorse Sunday hunting.

So did the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, one of two large sportsmen's groups in the state.

"It's something that's going to happen down the road," predicts Charles Bolgiano, a USP officer who lives in East Hempfield Township.

"Other states got Sunday hunting because that was the right thing for them to do at the time. Is this the right thing for us to do at the time?"

No, says state Rep. Gordon Denlinger of Narvon, Lancaster County's lone legislator on the crucial Game and Fisheries Committee.

An occasional hunter, Denlinger says he won't support any Sunday hunting bill as long as his farming constituency opposes it.

"I think farmers feel they don't want their Sundays taken over by hunters who are all over their farms," he says.

Denlinger also worries that the Game Commission would be spread thin if Sunday hunting is added. Other services provided by the agency would be slowed, he thinks.

He's also sympathetic to non-hunters who enjoy the outdoors and would like a day free of guns in the woods.

And last, but not least, he says he's worried about "the direction of our society."

He thinks that society was healthier when the Sabbath was more strictly observed as a day of rest.

The uphill battle that Sunday hunting still faces is also reflected in the fact that the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, the other large sportsmen's group, does not endorse Sunday hunting.

At the group's fall convention last year, delegates voted 27 to 11 against endorsing Sunday hunting.

All 15 clubs in Lancaster County have voted against Sunday hunting. Lancaster County is among the highest membership counties in the federation.

"There's a real big concern about more posted ground (by farmers angry if Sunday hunting is legalized)," says Ray Martin of New Holland, a federation officer.

Echoes Lowell Graybill, of Elizabethtown, the federation's president, "There are extreme concerns about land accessibility and they don't want to jeopardize that."

Both he and Martin say they don't see the majority of farmers budging from their desire for "one day where they aren't bothered by someone driving up the lane and for spending time with family."

Still, at the group's more recent spring convention, the rhetoric was more favorable, so the federation will take another vote at the upcoming fall convention.

Sunday hunting? Its day may yet come.

By The Lancaster New Era