Dear Justin Marcum,

Hello, my name is Kevin Adkins. I am a hunter from Mingo County. Recently, I hunted and killed a buck in Mingo County. As far as I knew, the buck was a legal kill. My local DNR agent confirmed that it was. However, after I contacted the state DNR, I learned it was not a legal kill because it was killed the day before the opening of firearms season. According to page 30 of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) Hunting Regulations, the counties of Logan, McDowell, Mingo and Wyoming are not open to firearm hunting season. which usually lasts from November 23rd to December 5th every year. According to page 8 General Hunting Regulations, no hunters may hunt on the Sunday preceding the opening Monday of big game season. This poses a problem for hunters who live in the aforementioned counties, who only have one season instead of two. This means that they needlessly lose up to three days of hunting throughout the year. I have taken it upon myself to represent the hunters of these counties who feel that they should not lose vital days of hunting in the relatively short hunting season. We believe that these counties should be excepted from the law prohibiting hunting on the Sundays mentioned. We believe this because working hunters may only be able to hunt on Sunday, so we don't want to take this opportunity away from them; Hunting can provide money and jobs to West Virginia, and an outdoor education the youth of our state and we don't want less people to be able to hunt; and, we don't want those hunters that are unaware of this law to be punished for a seemingly pointless reason. As you can see from the attached petition, a great number of West Virginia hunters agree with us. I hope that you too will agree with us, and will take the necessary steps to amend the law. We know it is no easy feat to change the law, and we appreciate that you even take the time to read this letter. We thank you for your time.

                                                                                         Sincerely,

                                                                                          Kevin Adkins