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.