A Nothingburger? Maybe, but maybe not. There are ALWAYS unintended consequences when decisions like this are made in house. As I've said many times on this site, "When you change the rules of the game, you change the way it is played". A little story of my deer hunting in California should illustrate one of my concerns.
At the time (about 1967) I was living in Oxnard and had one of 5 over-the-counter archery tags for LA County. The hunt was very unpopular because it wasn't well accepted by the general public. I hunted just across the county line in Malibu (Yes, Malibu) off the Pacific Coast Highway. I shot a doe (bucks were rare), field dressed her and lowered her off the small cliff with a rope, then climbed down myself and loaded her in the trunk while cars were whizzing by, some honking their horns. At the time (and maybe still now) you had to validate the kill by getting a signature from a public official (State, County or City) who was supposed to see your license, your ID, your weapon, and the deer. So, I drove to Leo Carillo State Beach up the road and when I got there, there were two concerned citizens reporting a poached deer (mine) being loaded into an illegally parked vehicle (mine) and the park ranger was writing this down while the good citizens were yelling and pointing to my car. I calmly got out and when I could get a word in edgewise, I told the ranger I was there just to get his signature. When he asked why, I knew this was going to be a problem. He dismissed the good citizens and asked for my ID and then asked why I needed his signature, Luckily, I had my big game hunting booklet with me so that he could see the law. But he decided to make a phone call or two to see if my request was for real and to get instructions on what he was to do. That took about 10 minutes and with a couple of "Yes sirs", he then proceeded to ask me about the hunt, my license, and my bow, the season, where the doe was when I shot her, did she run over the county line, who owned the property, did I have permission the hunt there (I did.), was my car illegally parked (It was not). Well, another 10 minutes and he finally did his job, but he was not a happy camper having to do it. So there went 25 minutes teaching him a part of his job his superiors forgot to teach him.
Now, will this exact same thing happen here? Probably not, but government agencies tend not to talk to each other and there will likely be lots of questions hunters will have that will be addressed with more red tape than we like.
And over and above all the red tape is the question of who is actually working for who and who is paying for government workers salaries? In most government cases, the parties involved have to backwards. This year I was audited by the IRS for 2022 taxes AND the Utah State tax commission for 2020 taxes and in both cases the agents assigned to the audits could not tell me exactly where I went wrong. I could have disputed the amounts owed, but it would have cost me more to do that than to just pay the amounts. So, I paid the amounts.
A Nothing Burger? I'll believe it when I see it!
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