Zach Fisher just wants the chance to take his kids hunting. As a father of two active, young children, Fisher can’t always do that. He lives in Virginia, one of ten states that either restrict or completely prohibit Sunday hunting, so he’s left with a choice: sports or hunting.

“Both my children are active in sports, and the games are always on Saturdays. They also love to hunt and fish. I just don’t think I should have to make that choice. If we had the freedom to hunt on Sunday in Virginia, I wouldn’t have to,” said Fisher, a manager for an industrial supply company. “It would open up a whole world of opportunity for me and my children.”

Sunday hunting prohibitions date back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when everything from shopping to fishing and hunting were banned. All those laws have been repealed with the exception of Sunday hunting. If hunters like Fisher get their way, those laws may be history as well. There has been a push in several states to lift the ban by individual sportsmen or organized groups, but efforts to repeal those laws aren’t garnering much attention among state legislators.

In 2007, at least twenty-three bills designed to relax Sunday hunting restrictions in one form or another have been introduced in eight states. Seven bills were introduced in Connecticut alone, but all died a quiet death. Bob Crook, a lobbyist for the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen, said virtually every bill introduced in the state legislature sails through the senate, only to die in the Democrat-controlled house.

“We just don’t get much support from Democrats,” said Crook. “There really isn’t any opposition to Sunday hunting. The general public couldn’t care less, and farmers are neutral or supportive. The only objection I hear is from retailers who feel like they’ll have to stay open on Sundays and from a few recreational groups like horseback riders and hikers. We even have the support of organizations like The Nature Conservancy and the Audubon Society.”

A bill introduced into the Virginia General Assembly that would have allowed landowners to hunt on their own property died. So did one that would have permitted hunters to go afield only after noon, presumably to temper objections from the religious crowd. A third bill would have allowed Sunday hunting in the western, mountainous third of the state where the majority of the state’s public land is located. It also failed.

Objections to Sunday hunting come from a variety of voices. In Pennsylvania and West Virginia, farmers and farm bureaus are leading the fight against lifting the ban. Mark O’Neill, media relations director for the 43,000-member Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, said his organization is not only opposed to the idea, but that opposition has only grown stronger each time Sunday hunting is addressed by the state legislature. No state is facing a crisis of deer overabundance more than Pennsylvania, and one way game managers hope to cut deer numbers and the resulting crop damage is by allowing hunting on Sunday. O’Neill, however, believes that’s not the solution.

“Our members view Sundays as their only opportunity to spend time recreating on their own property without putting themselves in danger,” he said, adding that the PFB is opposed to Sunday hunting even on public lands because many of those lands border farms.