I hate you guys! lol. I've been staying out of this one, but since everybody and their cousin is @ing me...
"To hunt from an elevated stand or platform without attaching
themselves to the tree or platform with a full body safety harness"
Is how the wording reads on the WMA maps. I've seen it written differently somewhere else, where it basically says you have to be attached to the tree during ascent and descent, as well as while at height. Alabama DCNR isn't always crystal-clear on regs. So there's that.
I personally think the law is up to interpretation. Is a ROS a platform? But I'm not the guy writing tickets.
Here's my thoughts. My understanding is that the law was written due to TMA initiative. Mississippi was the first state to have a harness law, to my knowledge. TMA is based out of Mississippi. The rule spread to Alabama for obvious geographic reasons. At the time it was written, it was not a bad reg. It specifies full-body because the waist harnesses that used to be sold with some stands were a death trap, and TMA was very outspoken about their shortcomings.
The state of Alabama doesn't give a dusty fart about my safety. It's concerned with liability. Since all TMA and to my knowledge ANSI standards dictate a full body harness, it gives them good legal protection if you fall on state lands. They can't specifically say it has to be a TMA harness, but they can get around it by saying full body.
From conversations I've had with TMA, I think we'll eventually see TMA or maybe ANSI standards for saddles. I think until that happens, it would be unlikely to see saddles made officially legal to use on state lands. Again, I dount it's about safety as much as it's about liability. All state organizations are concerned with money and survival.
I could be wrong. I know several guys who could help Alabama saddle hunters get their voices heard. The thing is, right now there's a grey area. If you put the issue in the limelight, you either definitively win or definitively lose.
I would be willing to talk with the folks I know if ALABAMA HUNTERS want the law looked at. No offense, but I don't care what any manufacturer or out of state hunter thinks about our regs. I'm also generally against the amendment of or passage of new regulations. My personal preference would be to throw the whole rule out altogether, which is never going to happen.
Anyways, that's my 2 cents on that. It's hard to have this conversation without getting political, and that's taboo here. If somebody wants to talk about it, PM me or join the Alabama Saddle Hunters Facebook page. Issues like this are part of the reason I started that little group.