Arizona 2025 2025 Regular Session

Arizona House Bill HB2603 Comm Sub / Analysis

Filed 02/06/2025

                     
  	HB 2603 
Initials BSR 	Page 1 Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs 
 
ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Fifty-seventh Legislature 
First Regular Session 
 
 
HB 2603: hunting; fishing; license; deferred prosecution 
Sponsor: Representative Nguyen, LD 1 
Committee on Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs 
Overview 
Allows the Game and Fish Commission (Commission) to revoke or suspend a person’s license 
to take or possess wildlife if the licensee is entering a deferred prosecution agreement. 
History 
The Commission may revoke or suspend a license issued to any person and deny the person 
the right to secure another license to take or possess wildlife for five year on conviction or 
after adjudication as a delinquent juvenile for: 
1) unlawfully taking, selling, offering for sale, bartering or possession of wildlife; 
2) carless use of firearms that resulted in the injury or death of a person; 
3) destroying, injuring or molesting livestock or damaging or destroying growing crops, 
personal property, notices or signboards or other improvements while hunting, 
trapping or fishing; 
4) littering public hunting or fishing areas while taking wildlife;  
5) knowingly allowing another person to use the person's game tag; 
6) taking or driving wildlife from closed areas or while trespassing;  
7) trespassing on private land to hunt, fish, trap or guild wildlife; 
8) intentionally interfering with, preventing or disrupting the lawful taking of wildlife 
by another person while in a hunting area as outlined; 
9) knowingly purchasing, applying for, accepting, obtaining or using a fraud or 
misrepresented license, permit, tag or stamp to take wildlife; 
10) acting as a guide without having procured a guide license; 
11) taking a game bird, game mammal or game fish and knowingly permitting an edible 
portion thereof to go to waste; or 
12) using an aircraft to take, assist in taking, harass, chase, drive, locate or assist in 
locating wildlife (A.R.S. § 17-340).   
Deferred prosecution is a special supervision program in which the county attorney of a 
participating county may divert or defer, before a guilty plea or a trial, the prosecution of a 
person who is accused of committing a crime (A.R.S. § 11-361).  
Provisions 
1. Authorizes the Commission to revoke or suspend a person’s license to take or possess 
wildlife if the licensee is entering a deferred prosecution agreement. (Sec. 1) 
2. Makes a technical change. (Sec. 1) 
☐ Prop 105 (45 votes)     ☐ Prop 108 (40 votes)      ☐ Emergency (40 votes) ☐ Fiscal Note