14....
I emailed my former poli sci professor for advice and here was his response...
"If the bill is in committee right now, you have the best chance to get some traction. There are two options you can pursue: 1) Try to get the langauge changed in committee markup, and 2) Try to get them to not pass the bill out of committee. The first option is probably easier and it sounds like the content of the bill excluding the language you want out would be beneficial.
Find out who the members of the committee are, and then contact them. State your case, but state it quickly. An explanation the length of your e-mail is beyond the attention span of your typical state legislator ;>
If a legislator is interested and wants to help, lean on him or her. Suggest a specific change in the language and have that legislator introduce an amendment to do so.
If the committee doesn't work, you have another chance to kill the bill when it's on the floor of the chamber. THat's harder. And it usually involves citizens contacting their legislators and putting pressure on them. So then you'd have to organize people all over the state, which is a tough job on its own.
Another thing you can do is find allies, people outside the legislature but have something at stake with this legislation. Your best ally might be hunters, but then they probably want to kill then entire bill. However, if your only options are a bill that restricts your collecting and no bill at all, you'd probably prefer no bill. At least I assume so from the tone of your mail.
If none of that works, then you should contact a lawyer and try to get the law declared unconstitutional. It's a last-ditch effort, and it's both expensive and time-consuming, but if the law passes it's about your only hope."
Hopefully this email will help put things into perspective for everyone here...
