The Peasant Wars

(Republished by permission)

Opinion by George Dovel

George Dovel is Editor and Publisher of The Outdoorsman.

In 2003, North America’s foremost wildlife scientist, Dr. Valerius Geist, made the following observations:

“The miracle of North American conservation is that it is basically a blue-collar system, grounded in the political and financial support and the active participation of large numbers of middle-class citizens who bring their basic honesty and decency to bear on important issues. This is just the opposite of the elitist system that has existed throughout Europe for centuries and is spreading like cancer around the world today, even right here at home. Read more

Action Time – HB 228

It’s action time with HB 228, MSSA’s flagship Self Defense bill. Let me first give you a report on where we are with the bill. Further down in this email I’ll tell you about the CRITICAL HELP we need from you.

Report. The House Judiciary Committee took Executive Action (“exec”) on HB 228 today. Three entire sections were stripped out of the bill, all for tactically valid reasons (trust me on this – I don’t like losing them either). The sections gone are Section 5 (recovery of legal costs in self defense), Section 6 (when and for how long police can seize guns) and Section 9 (employers and employees). Even with these three sections gone, there is still a LOT of meat in the bill and it is VERY worth supporting – worth fighting for.

There was a hostile amendment offered (by Democrat lawyers on the Committee) to strip Section 1(5) (burden of proof in self defense) from the bill. That attempt failed thanks to Rep. Deb Kottel (D-Great Falls). We’ve also been drawing a lot of political lightening over Section 3, defensive display of a firearm. Section 3, among other benefits, would affirm that open carry is legal in Montana, an issue about which Montana law is currently silent. In an effort to reduce some of the problems police administrators have with HB 228, Deb Kottel (still our hero) offered an amendment that was approved by the Committee.

There’s just one problem, Deb’s amendment, though well-intended, caused some serious problems with Section 3 and how it would be implemented. We are working now to get this problem fixed when HB 228 comes up for Second Reading on the House floor, probably on Tuesday. BTW, all Democrats except Deb Kottel on the Judiciary Committee voted AGAINST HB 228. All the Republicans and Deb voted FOR the bill.

To get HB 228 passed by the House and to get Section 3 fixed, we need to build political heat and momentum for HB 228. That’s where you come in.

Action item 1: One Democrat on the Committee who voted against HB 228 is Rep. Bob Ebinger (D- Livingston). Bob is elected from a pretty “gunny” district. I doubt that his constituents would be pleased to learn that he’s voting anti-gun. And, I suspect Bob may be somewhat responsive to public pressure.

So, we need to deliver a LOT of messages to Bob challenging his opposition to HB 228. You can email Rep. Ebinger at: buffalojump@imt.net

Please send Rep. Ebinger an email. DO NOT threaten him! DO NOT use bad language! No name calling. Scold him, cajole him, rebuke him or persuade him as you like. Also, if you know ANYBODY in Park County, please get them to contact Ebinger too, and to spread this word in Park County. Anyone without email can call the legislative message center at 444-4800 and leave a message for Ebinger. The messages should be short, such as “Why the heck are you voting against a self defense bill supported by every national gun rights organization, and by every statewide gun group in Montana? Who do you work for anyway?” Besides alerting all your friends, you can both send Ebinger an email message AND send him a message through the legislative message center (not working on Sunday). Let’s make Ebinger feel the heat. He’s our poster boy for the moment.

Action item 2: It’s now time for you to begin contacting your House members, your Representatives (not Senators yet). Be nice!

If you don’t know who your Representative is, you can find out from:
http://nris.mt.gov/gis/legislat/2009/

If you live near a district boundary and can’t figure out which of two districts you live in, send to any who are close. Heck, you can send to every member of the House if you like.
Emails addresses for all legislators who have email addresses are available from:
http://www.leg.mt.gov/css/Sessions/61st/roster.asp?HouseID=0&SessionID=94

The message to all legislators should be some variation of “Please support HB 228. Oppose any amendments not made by Rep. Kerns (the sponsor) or Rep. Kottel.” Plus, you might wish to explain that although some think the HB 228 is opposed by all cops, it’s actually only opposed by police administrators, not rank and file street cops. And you might remind legislators that police, even administrators, are our employees, not our bosses. You might even care to invite them to review my expose’ on Public Safety V. Private Safety at:
http://www.progunleaders.org/safety

You may invite legislators to review my explanation of HB 228 at:
http://progunleaders.org/Self-defense/

Feel free to be very firm. “We want this bill to pass!” is not too strong.

We REALLY need a big push, right now. We need a strong showing from the House, because we will have an additional fight when HB 228 gets to the Senate. The better the vote in the House, the less the fight in the Senate.

HB 228 will probably be on the House floor for Second Reading on Tuesday. This is probably the most critical vote for the bill. NOW is the time to put the pressure on.

Thanks loads for your help! Every single message sent to Helena helps!!

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

Comment In Re HB 382 – Youth Hunting

Just in case any of you are curious about what others have said about the youth hunting bill, HB 382, I’ve posted all the comments at:
http://www.progunleaders.org/Legis09/CommentHB382.html

I don’t have time to keep updating this page as more comments come in, so I’ll leave it at just the first few hours of comment.

Thanks to all of you who sent comments!

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

Quick Poll

The NRA is supporting a bill, HB 382, before the Montana Legislature to allow young hunters (younger than the current 13 years) to legally buy a license and take and tag game animals if they are hunting with a parent or other adult (defined as 21 or older, passed hunter safety, and hunted previous season). The NRA would like MSSA to support this bill.

I like the idea in some respects, but have some reservations. I’d like your opinion – Should MSSA support this bill?

Let me state some of the obvious pros and cons:

The primary argument for the bill is that it would help hunter recruitment – get some kids afield and involved in hunting before their young lives get captured by other activities. We certainly do need to be paying attention to hunter recruitment.

One argument against the idea is made by hunter safety instructors. They say that kids don’t really “get” the importance of firearm safety until they’re about 13 years old (current minimum age for hunting). They also argue that kids can go afield or to hunting camp now with parents or others, they just can’t legally shoot and tag game.

Some also say that there are adults who would just use this opportunity to get another “family” game tag – that dad would shoot the animal and put the kid’s tag on it, training the youth shooter into an inappropriate culture about hunting.

About the maturity and gun safety argument, the response I appreciate is that parents know their kids best and should be allowed to determine if their kid is ready to actively hunt.

I queried a psychologist (a mom from a gun-owning family) about this maturity issue. Here’s what she had to say:

“Kids’ brains do go through a lot of changes as they enter their teen years. Some of the changes have to do with mylenation of the frontal lobes (basically making the parts of the brain that deal with impulse control, planning, judgment, cause and effect thinking etc. more efficient). Although a 9 year old could grasp the mechanics of gun safety and even have well-ingrained safety promoting habits if they are raised with conscientious gun owners, they could likely struggle when faced with the use of a gun in a novel situation that required good judgment and impulse control (I think she’s talking about “buck fever” – GM). (The same kind of reasoning applies to the question of the age that a child should be allowed to drive associated with carrying firearms and driving vehicles. )

“There is no absolute marker for brain maturation but we do have neuropsychological tests which can look at areas of brain functioning to determine if a child is at peer level or has developmental lags. With adults the markers are more clear because their brains are not developing at the same rate children’s brains are. e.g. if an adult has deficits in frontal love functioning, it is not likely that time alone will fix the problem, whereas with kids, sometimes the problem is merely a developmental lag.”

About the hunter recruitment argument, it is said that nearly all of these kids would become hunters anyway, even if a year or two later, because they come from hunting families – how else would young hunters get afield. So, this concept would only get the same kids hunting earlier who would be recruited as hunters later – would not effect a net, long term increase in hunter recruitment.

Finally, because this is an “apprentice hunter” measure, it would also apply to people older than young kids, people who might wish to sample hunting for the first time. In this respect it might be a good companion for MSSA’s SB 185 to allow non-resident college students to hunt for the price of residents.

So, what say you? Support not support (I don’t see MSSA opposing this)? Also, if I missed any important pros or cons, let me know.

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

National Parks Carry Resolution Introduced

The Resolution supporting self defense and firearm carry in National Parks and urging the Montana Attorney General to intervene in lawsuits filed to block National Parks carry has been introduced as HJ 14 (House Joint Resolution 14 – “Joint” means it will go to the Senate for concurrence if it passes the House)). HJ 14 is introduced by Rep. Wendy Warburton (R-Havre) (thanks Wendy). HJ 14 has been assigned to the House Judiciary Committee but no public hearing has been set, yet.

You may remember that the Department of Interior changed its regulations to allow Park carry, but the antis immediately filed suit to block the new regulations. All of this is described in the text of the measure.

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

Public Safety v. Private Safety?

Pasted below is an email I just sent to members of the House Judiciary Committee.

You will be interested to review the discussion of “Public Safety v. Private Safety” I put together with help from MSSA’s helpful Research Gurus. See the URL below.

Will you PLEASE contact members of the House Judiciary Committee with a VERY BRIEF (about three lines) message. Ask them:

1) To support HB 228 with amendments from the Sponsor only, and;

2) Review the discussion of “Public Safety v. Private Safety” at the URL below.

Thanks loads!!!

Gary

===============================

Dear House Judiciary Committee Member,

When opposing HB 228 before the Judiciary Committee, MSPOA lobbyist Jim Smith characterized HB 228 as a conflict between “public safety” and “private safety.”

That is an interesting perspective and, I thought, worthy of closer examination. This carefully documented consideration is posted at:
http://www.progunleaders.org/Safety/

I hope you can take the time to review this examination.

Best wishes,

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

Legislative update; 1/28

MSSA Bills – 2009
(Update January 28, 2009)

MSSA page about all legislative issues: http://www.progunleaders.org/Legis09/

How to track bills, interact with the Legislature and support MSSA bills: http://www.progunleaders.org/Legislative%20Process/

Bills supported

HB 228 – Self Defense – Rep. Krayton Kerns. A bill to cure voids and gray areas in Montana law about when and how a person may possess or use a firearm for self defense without fear of prosecution.
Bill at: http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/billhtml/HB0228.htm
Explanation at: http://progunleaders.org/Self-defense/
Last action: Referred to House Judiciary Committee; public hearing on 1/22, opposed by police administrators and prosecutors, no executive action by Committee yet.

HB 2 – Shooting Range Funding – Appropriations Committee (Natural Resources Subcommittee). This is part of the whole state budget, in House Bill 2. We are asking for $1.2 million of hunter license fee money be appropriated to the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks(FWP) budget by the Legislature for the Shooting Range Development Program (SRDP). Last biennium (two-year budget cycle) the Legislature appropriated $1 million. The FWP budget is reviewed by the Natural Resources Joint Subcommittee (NRJS) of the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance and Claims Committee. The NRJS will begin its public hearings on HB 2 on 1/19, at 8:30 AM in Room 317C of the Capitol. This public hearing will last for several days. It is unknown at this time just when the FWP budget and the SRDP item will come up.

SB 183 – Wolves – Senator Joe Balyeat. A bill to wrest control of wolves out of federal hands and assert Montana primacy in managing wolves to protect hunting opportunities, livestock, and people working and recreating outdoors.
Bill at: http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/billhtml/SB0183.htm
Explanation at: http://www.progunleaders.org/Legis09/SB%20183%20Summary.html
Last action: Referred to Senate Fish and Game Committee; no public hearing scheduled yet.

HB 246 – Montana-made Firearms – Rep. Joel Boniek. A bill to challenge federal authority under the power of Congress to regulate commerce among the states, this bill declares that any firearms made and retained in Montana are not subject to any federal regulatory authority.
Bill at: http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/billhtml/HB0246.htm
Last action: Public hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on 1/22, no opposition, no executive action by Committee yet.

SB 185 – Non-resident College Student Hunting – Senator Joe Balyeat. A bill to allow non-resident, full-time college students in Montana to buy licenses for the same cost as residents, and to allow full-time college students from Montana temporarily living in other states to come home to hunt at the same price as residents.
Bill at: http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/billhtml/SB0185.htm
Last action: Referred to Senate Fish and Game Committee; no public hearing scheduled yet.

No number yet – Montana Home Guard Revitalization – Rep. Joel Boniek. A bill to flesh out the laws about the Montana Home Guard to allow a volunteer Montana corps to make trained and organized resources available to the Governor and county sheriffs in times of need – something between Neighborhood Watch and the Montana National Guard – more like volunteer fire departments but with a broader mission.
Draft Bill at: http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/lchtml/LC1710.htm
Last action: Bill not yet introduced.

No number yet – National Park Gun Regulations – Rep. Wendy Warburton. A Joint Resolution opposing a lawsuit by the Brady Campaign to block new regulations allowing self defense guns in National Parks, and urging the Montana Attorney General to intervene in that lawsuit to protect the rights of Montana citizens.
Draft resolution: http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/lchtml/LC2013.htm
Last action: Resolution not introduced yet – should be introduced and get a number later today.

No number yet – Suppressors afield – Rep. Joel Boniek. A bill to repeal 87-3-123, M.C.A., “Use of silencers or mufflers on firearms forbidden. No person may take into a field or forest or have in his possession while out hunting any device or mechanism devised to silence, muffle, or minimize the report of any firearms, whether such device or mechanism be operated from or attached to any firearm.” This Prohibition-era law is overbroad, unenforced, and needs to be repealed.
Bill draft at: http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/lchtml/LC2150.htm
Last action: Bill not introduced yet.

SB 80 – Elect Board of Regents – Senator Dan McGee. MSSA has waged a three-year campaign to persuade the Board of Regents and U-system campus managers that they may not contravene the Montana Constitution and strip students, employees and other of their constitutional right to bear arms, but to no avail. The BoR and campus managers have been unwilling to enter into any substantive negotiations on this topic. BoR members are heavily insulated and unaccountable because they are appointed, rather than elected. SB 80 would set a referendum for Montana citizens to vote to change the Constitution to make BoR members elected, instead of appointed. MSSA supports this change. This bill needs support of 2/3 of the Legislature to pass and get the issue on the ballot.
Bill at: http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/billhtml/SB0080.htm
Last action: Public hearing on 1/12 before the Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee, no committee executive action yet.

Bills opposed

HB 36 sponsored by Rep. Kendall VanDyk and SB 92 by Senator Larry Jent. Called “castle doctrine” bills, these two bills are identical, do nothing to improve existing Montana law, and have been introduced so the sponsors can claim to have introduced “pro-gun” legislation. Both bills have had hearings before the Judiciary Committee in their respective chambers, and both are on hold awaiting outcome of HB 228 and other political winds.

H.R. 45 in Congress

Many of you have forwarded emails to me about the Draconian H.R. 45 that has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, that would make it a crime for anyone to possess a firearm in the U.S. unless they have a license to do so issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. A couple of points about this:

1) I can’t imagine that Montana’s lone Congressman, Denny Rehberg, would do anything other than vote against this. Denny is our friend, supports the RKBA, but is only one member of Congress.

2) The theory that this will inhibit criminal use of guns is absurd, for two reasons: It is the vocation of criminals to break the law, and the courts have held that criminals can not be required to register themselves as gun possessors or register their guns because that registration would violate their Fifth Amendment right to freedom from self-incrimination – that is, it is a crime for a criminal to possess a firearm and to submit to a licensing scheme would constitute an admission by the criminal that he had broken the law.

There’s not much we can do about this federal legislation at present. If it should get out of the U.S. House and into the U.S. Senate it will probably be good to remind Montana’s Senators Baucus and Tester that they have pledged to oppose all gun control legislation.

Stay tuned …

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

Report – MSSA SSN Lawsuit

We finally received a decision from the District Court in our lawsuit against the state asserting that the requirement to provide a Social Security number to be able to legally hunt or fish in Montana violates the right to privacy that we have reserved to ourselves from government interference in the Montana constitution. That reserved right says at Article II, Section 10:

“Right of privacy. The right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest.”

The state argued that it is required by federal law to collect SSNs in order to be eligible to receive federal funds for child support enforcement.

Our side argued that abridging any constitutional right, especially this one where it is affirmatively stated, requires a level of need called a “compelling state interest,” a very high bar to intrusion. And, we said, the Montana Supreme Court has ruled that money does not constitute a compelling state interest, including federal money.

The state argued that the suffering of children absent the federal funds to enforce child support would rise to the level of a compelling state interest.

We responded that the Legislature could replace that federal money with in-state funds to avoid abrogation of a fundamental and reserved right of the people.

Notwithstanding our best arguments, the judge found in favor of the state, that the law allowing FWP to demand an SSN before selling a fishing or hunting license is not trumped by the right to privacy. It is unknown whether the judge thinks the right to privacy is meaningless or whether he thinks the need for federal money is unarguable. However, in net the judge ruled that federal money is more important that the right we the people have reserved to ourselves.

We might ask, what other rights are for sale? How much federal money will the state get for our freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, our right to trial by jury, or our right to bear arms? And, wouldn’t it be more efficient to just auction the entire Declaration of Rights in the Montana Constitution for whatever the federal government will bid?

As you may suppose, I was disappointed in the District Court decision. However, we’ve intended all along to take this to the Montana Supreme Court, in order to get a precedent-setting decision. Our attorneys tell me that we are better positioned to get to and argue before the Supreme Court as losers in the District Court than as winners. I trust their analysis of this.

Our attorneys (Quentin Rhoades of Missoula and Lee Bruner of Butte – thanks loads guys) have been conducting this litigation for us pro bono, including covering most (but not all – we’ve paid some) of the costs incurred. They tell me that their firms are getting nervous about the unpaid costs involved, and that while they are willing to continue to commit their time pro bono, MSSA will have to come up with funds to cover the costs associated with the appeal to the Montana Supreme Court. Once I hear what those costs are estimated to be, I will be getting back to you with a pitch for donations for the appeal effort.

BTW, we do have a trump card to play in the appeal, but I can’t tell you what it is yet. Stay tuned …

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

Research Help Needed

As the legislative session progresses, I find myself needing Internet research on various subjects that I don’t have time to do, or that gets put off longer than it should because of my lack of time.

I’d like to develop a sub-list of this email list of those of you who are reasonably nimble on the Internet and who are willing to receive research requests from me from time to time. I am imagining a list of a dozen or 20 of you who would be somewhat on call. If I need research help, I’ll make the request to this sub group. Whichever one of the sub group can first get to the task might hunt down the information I need.

So, let me know if you are willing and able to serve on this “Electronic Research Task Force” for MSSA.

FYI, I usually need documentable sources for information I am communicating to legislators. Only as an example, today I want to know what the justice system closure rates are on serious crimes of interpersonal violence – murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping and assault. What percentage of each of these criminals are caught by police, what percentage are convicted, and how long are they in prison, on average.

Let me know if you have the (occasional) time, skills and willingness to be included on this separate research email list.

Thanks loads,

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

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