Montana's Leading Gun Group Backs 4 Key Legislative Items
"Shooting sports, preventing discrimination regarding firearms, self-defense and pre-trial disarmament"
The Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA) is advocating for the passage of four pieces of legislation during the state’s current legislative session.
President Gary Marbut said the four bills deal with shooting sports, preventing discrimination regarding firearms, self-defense and pre-trial disarmament.
The first piece of legislation the organization supports is a joint resolution that encourages the state’s Board of Regents to invest more in shooting sports.
“Montana produces a lot of young competitors who do extremely well in the national circuits,” he said. “Yet when they get ready to go to college, they have to go out of state to find universities that have shooting programs and scholarships where they can compete for the university and obtain the scholarships.”
Marbut added that MSSA thinks the state should have these programs so kids don’t need to leave Montana.
State Senator John Fuller (R-Kallispell) introduced Senate Joint Resolution Number 7 on Monday, which outlines this proposal.
“The Montana Legislature encourages the units of the Montana University System to develop endowments and offer scholarships for enrolled students competing in shooting sports,” the resolution says.
No opponents objected to this resolution at a State Senate Education and Cultural Resources hearing on Tuesday, January 21. The bill's proponents included the Associated Students for the University of Montana (ASUM) and the state’s Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education.
“Adding a sport within the Montana universities would provide valuable opportunities for students and could open the door for academic scholarships for student-athletes,” said Hope Morrison, who represented ASUM.
The MSSA President said he thought this had almost a 100 percent chance of passing.
The second bill MSSA advocates for is preventing discrimination concerning firearms, especially in the insurance and finance industries.
Marbut said his organization is concerned about debanking. This term refers to when a bank suddenly closes a customer’s bank account because it deems the person some type of risk.
State Senator Kenneth Bogner introduced Senate Bill 176 on Monday, which covers this topic.
This bill proposal “is to prohibit discrimination against individuals, groups, associations, or businesses in matters concerning firearms, insofar as any discrimination may involve finance, lending, credit, and insurance and concerning the manufacture, distribution, sale, possession of, or advocacy for firearms, firearm ammunition, or firearm accessories.”
“The right to keep their arms is both a political and civil right and is protected under the Montana Constitution,” he said. “So we're saying it should be protected from discrimination.”
Marbut said he thinks this bill has a 50 to 60 percent chance of passing.
The third bill deals with asserting a self-defense claim.
Marbut said that “too often,” people who legitimately defend themselves get prosecuted. He added that this can take a “heavy toll” on people as they can go bankrupt and lose their homes, jobs, and families due to these prosecutions.
State Senator Theresa Manzella (R-Hamilton) introduced Senate Bill 127 on January 10.
This bill says that if a defendant argues “justifiable use of force” when charged with a forcible felony and is acquitted, then that person is entitled to reimbursement for “out-of-pocket costs, attorney fees, and costs for the specific forcible felony that did not result in a conviction.”
Furthermore, this bill says reimbursement must be “paid out of the budget used by the prosecutor or the prosecutor's employer to pay for the trial of the charge that did not result in a conviction.”
A hearing for this bill was held on Tuesday, January 21, in the State Senate Judiciary Committee.
“If you are not convicted of any wrongdoing, then you should not be burdened with the financial expenses associated with the costs of a trial,” Manzella said at the hearing.
Marbut said he thinks this has a 75 to 80 percent chance of passing.
The final bill MSSA endorses pertains to pre-trial disarmament.
“When a person is charged with a crime, no matter how minor, prosecutor[s] universally hand the judge a boilerplate list of restrictions they want imposed, and the judge typically just rubber stamps that, and it almost always includes no guns,” Marbut said.
According to the MSSA President, when a court order bans someone from possessing firearms, it is entered into a system and routed through the Fusion Center in Helena, which serves as a state-federal connection to federal databases.
Marbut then said the federal authorities determine whether the individual is classified as a prohibited person under federal law. If the person is, it becomes a felony for that individual to possess a firearm.
He added that even if the individual is later exonerated, acquitted or the charges are dropped, it is nearly impossible to remove that federal prohibition from the system.
Marbut said that a person “effectively loses their right to keep their arms for life because some judge carelessly imposes a gun ban requested by a prosecutor.”
“Our bill would say that a judge may not impose a ban on possession of firearms unless the person is charged with a forcible felony or was charged with having committed a crime of violence with a weapon,” Marbut added.
Although this bill has not yet been introduced, Marbut estimates that once introduced, it has a 75—to 80 percent chance of passing.
The MSSA President said none of these bills present a “significant challenge” to legislative authority.
He added that since its founding in 1989, MSSA has gotten 71 pro-gun bills enacted into law.
Marbut said that his organization gets through pro-gun bills every session and prevents “anti-gun” bills from going through.
According to Marbut, who authored a book called “Gun Laws of Montana,” the state has the best gun laws in the country.
“Montana gun owners have the most liberty of any state,” he said.
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Zachery Schmidt is the founder of The Montana Chronicles. If you have any tips, please send them to montanachronicles@proton.me.
Photo “Montana Legislature” by Onasill - Bill Badzo. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.