Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Lawmaker bags first legislative trophy
Del. James Edmunds brought some deer antlers to Richmond with him, and then he made it legal.
General Assembly 2011
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RICHMOND -- When James Edmunds headed to Richmond to begin his first term in the House of Delegates, he brought along some mementos from his Halifax County farm.
Little did the Republican know he was hauling contraband.
Every time he plows his fields, he turns up antlers that have been shed by white-tailed deer. He figured a few of the things would make a nice decoration in his eighth-floor office in the General Assembly building.
On the way, antlers in hand, he was accosted by someone on the elevator who said, "Did you know those things are illegal?"
No way, he thought.
But sure enough, he checked into it and there it was, right there in the Code of Virginia: It's unlawful to possess "any wild bird or wild animal or the carcass or any part thereof, except as specifically permitted by law."
What to do?
Wait, he's a lawmaker now, Edmunds thought.
So he put in a bill, HB 1283, that carves out an exception for the "possession of shed antlers."
What he didn't know at the time is that the House has an old tradition of hazing freshman delegates when their first piece of legislation comes to the floor.
When it appeared on the docket Friday, Edmunds' fellow delegates had a field day.
"This antlers bill is foundational to our freedoms," Del. Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax County, thundered in fulsome praise.
But in the end, nobody objected to the antlers exception. Well, almost nobody.
Edmunds' bill gained final House passage Monday, 95-1, to a rousing round of cheers from his House colleagues.
