MSPCA Position: Oppose
Sponsors: Representative Frost (H. 941); Representative Lombardo (H. 993); Representative Pease (H. 1016); Representative Sullivan-Almeida (H. 1057); Representative Vieira (H. 1065); Senator Durant (S. 576)
Status: Referred to Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Hearing held 10/21/2025.
The public places significant value on having one day each week during hunting season to enjoy the outdoors without concern about conflicts with hunting activities. These bills would, in a variety of ways, lift Massachusetts’ more than 100-year old statewide ban on Sunday hunting. A 2022 survey found that Massachusetts voters support the Sunday hunting ban by a margin of 1.5 to 1. Although just 1% of Massachusetts adults are hunters, they already have access to six out of seven days each week—including half of the weekend—for hunting. Repealing the Sunday hunting ban would prioritize the demands of a small minority over the clear preferences of the majority. As the third most densely populated state, ending the ban would also introduce unnecessary safety risks to the public and their companion animals, as hunting accidents can and do happen. For example:
- In 2017, on two separate occasions errant shots from hunter firearms damaged vehicles in Tyngsboro.
- In 2015, a father and son were shot by another hunter in Gardner.
- In 2014, in Barnstable, a hunter mistook a man and his dog for a herd of deer, shooting him in the neck, back, and hand.
- In 2011, a woman was shot when her dogs were mistaken for deer in Norton.
- In 2010, a high school runner was shot in the leg in Mattapoisett.
- In 2008, a hunter accidentally shot a man with a shotgun on Nantucket [PDF].
Though arguments have been made that permitting Sunday hunting would address human-wildlife conflicts, available data calls these assertions in question. For example, MassWildlife data shows that 1,334 deer on average were killed on Saturdays during archery season from 2013 through 2018. This amounts to about 1% of the current deer population—not enough to control the deer population or mitigate conflicts. In addition, and contrary to popular belief, deer hunting typically does not lower the incidence of Lyme disease or control tick populations. According to leading Lyme disease experts, including Dr. Richard Ostfeld, human risk of exposure to Lyme disease is correlated with the abundance of immature rodent hosts and their food resources rather than deer numbers.
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