The act includes some restrictions to hunting on Sundays. Hunters can’t fire within 500 yards of a place of worship or house someone else owns. They can’t hunt deer with dogs on Sundays or shoot between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. — except on licensed hunting preserves — or hunt migratory game birds. And no one can hunt on Sundays in counties with more than 700,000 people — that is, Wake and Mecklenburg.

Lifting the Sunday hunting ban has been a contentious discussion in North Carolina. One of only 11 states banning the practice, North Carolina often lost hunters — and the revenue they bring in — to neighboring states, opponents of lifting the ban had argued. Meanwhile, supporters of the ban had said that it provided balance between hunting and other forms of recreation while also honoring tradition and reverence for Sunday services. 

Rep. Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville, and Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, voted for the bill. Rep. Joe Sam Queen, D-Waynesville, voted against the bill. Though a supporter of hunting heritage and gun rights, Queen had come out in support of the ban as a way to ensure worshippers “are not burdened by the echoes of firearms” and that other outdoors users could have one day to use public lands without having to be aware of hunters. 

Meanwhile, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission had come out in favor of allowing Sunday hunting as a way to increase economic benefit from and youth engagement in hunting. 

“The current prohibition against expanded options for Sunday hunting serves no purpose regarding conservation of North Carolina’s wildlife resources and their habitats,” reads a resolution from the Commission. 

The bill included a variety of other provisions as well, such as measures to promote wildlife-related recreation and creation of the Outdoor Heritage Council and trust fund to engage youth in the outdoors. 

The law takes effect Oct. 1.