Will legalizing blaze pink equate to more female hunters? North Dakota hopes so. The state wants to join the nine other states that already pushed to legalize fluorescent pink for big game hunting. Sen. Kristin Roers (R-Fargo) introduced Senate Bill 2143 earlier this year and hopes to bring it before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee next week, The Bismarck Tribune reports.
Roers says a shopping trip for hunting gear made her realize the need for this type of legislation.
“The options were in orange, only unisex sizes, and in pink, only female sizes,” said Roers. “So my options were to either wear something that fit but wasn't legal, or wear something that didn't fit but was legal.”
SB 2143 would require big game hunters to wear at least 400 square inches of fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink and “allow a camouflage pattern of up to 50% for the two colors.” Roers hopes it will help “modernize” the state law and encourage more hunters to participate, according to The Bismarck Tribune.
North Dakota Game and Fish Department Enforcement Division Chief Scott Winkelman is supportive of the bill, and said, “I don’t think it would hurt anything,” adding that “I think the biggest plus would just be if it can get more people in the field hunting.”
NDGFD has not met to discuss the bill and no comments are available at this time.
7 Comments
Blane Klemek
2/12/2021, 5:13:48 PM
Wow! A completely sexist and insulting angle to take in garnering public support for the virtues of blaze pink, and from a female legislator no less! Minnesota legalized blaze pink a while ago. The clowns that took this angle to pass/promote the legislation quickly took heat for their sexist viewpoints on the color pink. I will tell you this: for many of us red-green colorblind hunters, BLAZE PINK is far and away much easier to see than blaze orange is. It's all about safety, not a fashion statement and a means to recruit female hunters. Manufacturers of hunting clothing need to stop catering exclusively to male hunters and start manufacturing clothes that fit female hunters. Clothes that fit female hunters will do more to recruit, retain, and reactivate them than color will by a long shot. And if blaze pink happens to be a part of the available assortment, all the better. For everyone.
Brian Charles
2/8/2021, 7:26:55 PM
If having to wear blaze orange instead of blaze pink keeps you out of the woods.... so be it... its not a fashion show for crying out loud. Every dollar spent on this campaign is a waste of funds that could be applied elsewhere to help protect the hunting heritage.
Brandon Thompson
2/9/2021, 5:23:17 PM
Good comment