Montana’s Trap-Free Initiative In Conflict With Constitution

The Montana Trap-Free Public Lands Initiative would ban trapping on public lands if passed. This appears to be in direct conflict with the Montana State Constitution.

Gary Marbut, President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association and the originator of the language that exists in the Montana Constitution that protects the heritage of hunting, fishing and trapping, responds to the initiative with comments accordingly. Read more

Idaho Regional Fish And Game Supervisor Clarifies Wolves Destruction On Elk Herds

I’ve always had a certain degree of sympathy for employees of any state fish and game department. They are much like a baseball umpire. Every call they make, one side agrees and the other doesn’t. One thing though can be said about the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. At lease one regional supervisor, Mark Gamblin, understands that the Internet is a resource that needs to be utilized whether his organization likes it or not. The Internet has become a powerful resource of information – some good and some not.

It seems that Gamblin has been monitoring the discussions going on at Ralph Maughan’s blog, an overtly pro wolf advocate site. It also appears that Gamblin has had enough of the rhetoric being written there, that he decided to post his own comments in order to clarify the positions of the Idaho Fish and Game Department and dispute a few of the talking points being used there. Read more

Pat Goodale Practical Firearm Training

Hunting/Precision Rifle Course – (24 Hours, 300 Rounds)

Pat Goodale Practical Firearm Training (PFT)

Yellowstone Rifle Club – Billings, MT

September 25-27, 2009

PFT will be offering a three day courses for hunters, which is essentially field courses adapted from Precision Rifle specifically for centerfire rifle hunters. This course provides a thorough exposure to precision/hunting rifle use, beginning with fundamentals of safety, manipulation, rifle theory, marksmanship, zeroing, firing positions, and field shooting. Most shooting is at reasonable distances (25-250 yards), however long range (300-600 yards) shooting is taught and expected. Read more

Firearms Freedom Act Website

In order to foster the Firearms Freedom Act movement, I have obtained the domain of:
http://www.firearmsfreedomact.com/

I intend this to be an information and networking point for this cascading movement.

It would be very helpful in getting this new Website to pop up on search engines if you would help propagate this link/URL on Websites and blogs wherever you hang out in the virtual world.

Thanks for whatever you can do.

Best wishes,

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

Action needed – NOW

The Associated Press reports that Montana’s Senator Max Baucus will support Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/07/31/bnews/br73.txt

This notwithstanding that MSSA, the NRA, GOA and CCRKBA all oppose confirmation of Sotomayor.

There is little doubt that Sotomayor is soft on or hostile to the Second Amendment. She deliberately dodged Senator Coburn’s questions on the subject, certainly not something a nominee who respects the Second Amendment would do. A Senator from Montana who supports Sotomayor is clearly is not representing Montanans.

Max promised me that he’d turned over a new leaf on gun rights issues, and for a while it seemed as if he actually had. Apparently, Max doesn’t spend enough time in Montana to understand how strongly we feel about the right to bear arms. He also doesn’t understand that in Montana his word is supposed to be his bond.

For Max to support Sotomayor is a direct and serious disrespect of you, MSSA, and all Montana gun owners – it’s a slap in the face.

I wrote to the staffer who handles gun issues for Baucus, Heather O’Laughlin, and asked her to inform Max that MSSA opposes the Sotomayor’s confirmation. I received no response. I sent Heather another email asking her if she’d actually told Max about the MSSA opposition to Sotomayor (sometimes D.C. staffers think they run the office). Again, she didn’t respond. So, I don’t actually know if O’Laughlin told Baucus of MSSA’s opposition. If not, Max needs to find somebody new to fill that office slot.

Nevertheless, the buck stops with Max. He’s the guy who wants your vote so he can return to Washington.

I urge you to forward this email to EVERY Montana gun owner for whom you have an email address.

ALL of you, send an email to
“Heather O’Loughlin”

Copy your email to
“Max Baucus”

Tell O’Laughlin to Tell Max: NO SOTOMAYOR!

Keep sending to Baucus. Keep sending to your friends.

The Senate vote on Sotomayor will be next week.

Maybe Max will get a clue about how strongly we feel about our right to bear arms in Montana.

Thanks for your help!!

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

Obama Administration Begins Opposition To States Claiming Sovereignty And Gun Rights

The several states are lining up to reclaim their sovereignty and telling the federal government to butt out. This is being done in myriad ways but all are related in that most claim that the Tenth Amendment protects the states from federal tyranny. States are passing resolutions, memorials and two states have passed laws and they intend to apply those laws for their citizens. The two states are Montana and Tennessee.

It was expected that at some point these laws would be challenged and it appears actions to do such has begun. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has published open letters to federal firearms license holders in Montana and Tennessee explaining that federal law trumps state law when it comes to gun laws. Read more

Firearms Freedom Act – BATFE letter

There’s been a lot of chatter on the Net today about the “open” letters the BATFE has recently issued to Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) in Montana and Tennessee claiming that the Firearms Freedom Acts passed in Montana and Tennessee are trumped by federal law.

Two primary news stories about this today are at CBS News and World Net Daily.

Such a response to the state-made guns bills by the BATFE has been expected, and is not particularly disturbing, for several reasons:

1) The letters are addressed only to FFLs and purport to assert authority only over those licensees already under the federal thumb because of their licenses. We’ve always assumed that people with existing FFLs would not be players in the state-made guns exercise because they will not wish to risk thwarting the earned reputation the BATFE has for vindictiveness. The letters are not addressed to non-FFLs, those folks who are potential participants in the state-made guns business.

2) The BATFE letters may lack any official import because they are not signed by the official who appears in the signature block, but by some unknown other person. It’s difficult to place much credence in a missive upon which the purported issuing person is unwilling to put his signature, and for which the signer is unknown.

3) The essence of the letter is a declaration that the laws that the BATFE enforces supercede the U.S. Constitution and the Tenth Amendment. I understand that the BATFE hopes that is so, but that’s far from proven yet. (We still recommend that nobody make these state-made guns until we can litigate and vet the principles involved.)

4) The letters, if they are official even though unsigned by the issuer, will help us establish standing to get this issue squarely before the federal courts. The feds have thrown down the gauntlet.

That’s why MSSA is asking for donations – so we can get this into court ASAP. Our target date for filing our lawsuit is about a month away. Please send whatever you can.

You can make your check payable to “MSSA”, and mark “MFFA” (for Montana Firearms Freedom Act) in the memo line. Any such donations to MSSA are not tax deductible (hey, we don’t want the hassle or political limitations associated with becoming a tax exempt entity).

Mail your check to:

MSSA
P.O. Box 4924
Missoula, Montana 59806

OR, you can use the PayPal button in the upper left of the MSSA Website front page to make a credit card donation. Just go to:
http://www.mtssa.org

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

Making Montana-made guns

I’ve had lots of inquiries about when Montana folks can begin making the “Made in Montana” guns authorized in HB 246.

The answer is, not yet!

First, HB 246 has an effective date of October 1, 2009, so it isn’t even in effect yet.

Then, we highly recommend that nobody attempt to make these devices until we can prove the legal principles in court. That will take a while. Meanwhile, we don’t want any Montanan to face possible federal prison time in a criminal action by the feds. Let us get this into court first as a civil (not criminal) matter. Don’t “jump the gun.”

I am VERY interested in talking to anyone qualified who may be interested in trying their hand at making one or more of these Montana-made guns. By “qualified,” here’s what I mean:

1. Does not currently have a Federal Firearms License;

2. Does not have any sort of criminal record;

3. Has the knowledge of how to make and assemble a youth-model, single-shot .22 rifle; and

4. Has the equipment or access to the equipment necessary to construct such a firearm (I believe we can get an in-state barrel-maker to make, bore and rifle the barrel).

If you are such a person, contact me by email or phone (549-1252)! If you know such a person, please have them contact me!

Thanks loads,

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

MSSA fundraising

The Montana Shooting Sports Association has launched an important fundraising drive to defray costs of litigating the state-made guns concept.

MSSA has gotten 54 pro-gun and pro-hunting measures through the Montana Legislature in the past 30 years. These include HB 246, called the Montana Firearms Freedom Act (MFFA), passed in 2009, which declares that any firearms made and retained in Montana are not subject to any federal authority or regulation. This is a Tenth Amendment challenge to overuse of the power given to Congress in the U.S. Constitution to “regulate … commerce among the several states.”

The principles in HB 246 must be vetted in federal court. MSSA is now finalizing litigation strategy to assert these principles.

This state-made guns challenge is sweeping the Nation. Clones of the MFFA have been introduced in Alaska, Texas, Tennessee (passed in TN), South Carolina, Minnesota and Florida. Legislators in other states have indicated that they will also introduce MFFA clones as soon as possible in Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Ohio, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Washington.

As the originating state in this challenge to federal power, other states are looking to Montana to lead the challenge in court. It is for this purpose that MSSA is raising funds.

MSSA needs your help!

Anyone able to make a donation can make a check payable to “MSSA”, and mark “MFFA” (for Montana Firearms Freedom Act) in the memo line. Any such donations to MSSA are not tax deductible (hey, we don’t want the hassle or political limitations associated with becoming a tax exempt entity).

Checks can be mailed to:

MSSA
P.O. Box 4924
Missoula, Montana 59806

OR, a donor can use the PayPal button in the upper left of the MSSA Website front page to make a credit card donation. Just go to:
http://www.mtssa.org

Thanks loads for whatever you can do to help!!

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

New Revelations about Reintroduced Wolves

Republished with permission by George Dovel, author.

In the early 1980s the 197-page unpublished research report, “Wolves of Central Idaho,” surfaced. In it, co-authors Timm Kaminski and Jerome Hansen estimated that elk and deer populations in six of the nine national forests in the proposed Central Idaho Wolf Recovery Area could support a total of 219 wolves without decreasing existing deer and elk populations in those forests.

They based this on an estimated 16.6 deer or elk killed by each wolf annually, and on estimated increases in elk and/or deer populations from 1981-1985 in the two-thirds of forests where they had increased.

But even if their estimated prey numbers and calculations were accurate, their report said only 17 wolves could be maintained in the Salmon National Forest, five in the Challis NF, and none in the Panhandle, Sawtooth and Bitterroot Forests. Yet the obvious question of what to do when the number of wolves in any National Forest or game management unit exceeded the ability of the prey base to support them was not adequately addressed. Read more

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