Advocates, including the Tennessee Wildlife Federation, say amending the state constitution will prevent radical animal rights activists and an increasingly urban state legislature from one day shutting down the activities.
But some hunters and non-hunters find the proposal perplexing, saying that hunting and fishing don’t appear to be at risk in Tennessee.
“I think it’s a tempest in a teapot to make it into a constitutional anything,” said Fred Ziegler of Hurricane Mills, about 70 miles west of Nashville.