RALEIGH, N.C. – Ending the 140-year-old ban on Sunday hunting with guns in North Carolina has one week to stay alive at the Legislature.

A Senate judiciary panel scheduled debate Tuesday on the proposed repeal. The bill is on a long list of bills up for consideration during the General Assembly’s so-called crossover week. Bills unrelated to spending or taxes that don’t pass one chamber by Thursday are unlikely to be heard again until 2011.

North Carolina is one of 11 states that restrict Sunday hunting.

Bill supporters argue it’s an archaic law that prevents hardworking citizens from being able to hunt on what may be their only day off. But a 2006 consultant’s report found that two-thirds of the state population opposed lifting the ban.