The Pennsylvania Game Commission is scheduled to vote Tuesday on proposed regulations that would ban deer-hunting rifles in the Lehigh Valley. The ban currently applies to Philadelphia and parts of four surrounding counties.
Commission staffers say the rifle ban is needed because the Lehigh Valley is growing rapidly. Shotgun hunting would still be allowed in the region.
If the proposal passes, the commission would have to take a final vote in April before it could go into effect for the 2008-09 hunting season. It would be the first major expansion of shotgun-only areas since 1991.
