CWP classes, May, Missoula area

Gun Safety for Personal Protection and Concealed Weapon Permits Course Sunday May 16th or Saturday May 29th.

MISSOULA – A course entitled “Gun Safety for Personal Protection and Concealed Weapon Permits” will be hosted in Missoula by the Montana Shooting Sports Association twice in May, once on Sunday the 16th, and again on Saturday the 29th.

Each one-day course will focus on safe handling, storage and use of handguns suitable for personal protection, selecting a personal firearm, issues of personal protection, allowable use of lethal force, concealed weapon permits, kids and gun safety, and shooting skills, and will include both classroom and shooting range sessions.

Graduates will receive a credential qualifying them to apply for concealed weapon permits under Montana law. The class will begin at 9:00 AM, and finish about 4:00 PM.

Class size is limited to the first 20 registrants and preregistration is required. The cost is $90 per student. Students should be 16 years or older.

For further information or to register, call 549-1252.

To register by email, reply to this email and provide:
Name
U.S. Mail address
Contact phone number

Expect an email confirmation of your class registration.

Further class instructions will be supplied by return email.

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

Montana Firearms Freedom Act And The Ninth Amendment

In Montana Shooting Sports Association’s litigation to validate the Montana Firearms Freedom Act (MFFA), there are several serious legal points to be made. These include various flavors of states’ right arguments, reexamination of federal Commerce Clause power, the effect of the Second and Tenth Amendments, and others.

One argument that has been simmering in the background but clearly raised in the text of the MFFA is what effect the Ninth Amendment may have on thwarting federal laws contrary to the MFFA.

While attorneys involved have been doing heavy thinking about the other important issues, I decided to turn my hand to researching, thinking about and writing about the MFFA/Ninth Amendment relationship. I seek to frame a Ninth Amendment argument, the essence of which could be applied in our litigation, MSSA v. Holder.

In case you may be interested, I have just published my writing about the MFFA and the Ninth Amendment at:
http://www.progunleaders.org/NinthAmendment/

Best wishes,

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

MSSA Candidate Questionnaires

I have now developed and posted Candidate Questionnaires specifically for three types of candidates:

Candidates for the Montana Legislature:
http://www.progunleaders.org/lcq2010/

Candidates for County Sheriff:
http://www.progunleaders.org/SheriffsCQ/

and, Candidates for County Attorney
http://www.progunleaders.org/cacq2010/

If you are interested in what issues MSSA will bring before the 2011 Montana Legislature, have a look at the CQ for legislative candidates.

If you have any contacts with any candidates for the Montana Legislature, be sure to strongly urge them to complete and return the legislative CQ. In fact, you should ask ALL candidates for the Legislature IF they have completed and returned the MSSA legislative CQ. If they haven’t, what are they hiding from Montana gun owners and hunters?

I have already distributed the CQs for Sheriffs and County Attorneys to those individuals who have volunteered to be MSSA County Coordinators (Thanks!) to use to evaluate local candidates for those offices. You are welcome to use them for that purpose too, especially if you live in a county not yet represented by an MSSA County Coordinator. If you only have one candidate running for a particular office, no need to bother unless you wish to use the CQ locally as an education or discussion piece for the lone candidate for Sheriff or County Attorney.

The counties where MSSA has identified an MSSA County Coordinator include:
Broadwater County
Cascade County
Dawson County
Flathead County
Glacier County
Jefferson County
Lake County
Lewis and Clark County
Lincoln County
Meagher County
Mineral County
Missoula County
Musselshell County
Park County
Ravalli County
Richland County
Sanders County
Stillwater County
Yellowstone County

Best wishes,

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

Update: Military Brass Destruction and ATK March 27, 2010

Having suffered a “Zumbo moment,” corporate giant ATK now seeks to redeem its image after its aggressive run at destroying all used military brass. Even though ATK was actively soliciting military installations to join its brass destruction program as recently as last Wednesday, ATK said in a fresh press release on Friday, “ATK fully supports the provision passed by Congress last year to ensure that demilitarized spent brass casings remain available for civilian use.”

Industry and gun culture insiders report that ATK head Mark DeYoung is one of us, a gun owner and sportsman. Great. However, to refurbish its image and get beyond this “Zumbo moment,” ATK will need to do more than simply post a statement announcing that it now fully supports a congressional ban on brass destruction enacted last year. Read more

MSSA Candidate Questionnaire

I’ve just sent the following message about the MSSA 2010 Legislative Candidate Questionnaire to about 300 Montana legislative candidates by email. The same message is going out to ALL candidates by postcard today. Feel free to review this CQ if you want to know what issues MSSA will have before the 2011 session of the Montana Legislature.

Gary

Montana Shooting Sports Association
2010 Legislative Candidate Questionnaire

Dear Montana Legislative Candidate,

MSSA is the primary political entity asserting the rights and prerogatives of gun owners and hunters in Montana.

We appreciate your willingness to serve the people of Montana in the Legislature. The gun owners and hunters of Montana would like to know more about you and your positions on issues of interest to them.

MSSA’s 2010 Legislative Candidate Questionnaire is posted at:
http://www.progunleaders.org/lcq2010

Please complete this Questionnaire and return it to us by mail or email at your earliest convenience for our candidate evaluations and endorsements.

Thanks!
.
Best wishes,

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

Military Cartridge Brass Destruction 2010 – Round 2

by Gary Marbut, President, Montana Shooting Sports Association

The cure that was arranged by Montana Senators Baucus and Tester to fix the intended military destruction of once-fired cartridge brass last year appears to be suffering from a fatal end-run.

Interested persons will remember that a year ago, helpful intervention by Montana’s senators persuaded the Department of Defense to rescind a fresh DoD directive to military installation commanders requiring them to destroy once-fired brass, prior to selling it at auction into the civilian marketplace for ammunition reloading and other purposes. Read more

MSSA County Coordinators

MSSA needs to get more involved in county-level races, especially for the position of sheriff. As the volunteer leader of MSSA, I simply don’t have time to reach to or be involved with county-level races. I can write and make available a candidate questionnaire for sheriff candidates, but it must be given to declared sheriff candidates and evaluated at the county level.

For that, MSSA needs people to volunteer to be MSSA County Coordinators. This email is to urge you to step up to the plate and volunteer for this position in your county.

So, please let me know if you are willing. Send me your name, a mail address, county name, a contact phone number and I’ll capture your email address from the email.

If I get more than one volunteer from any county, I’ll connect all volunteers in that county and let you folks sort out who wants to be the MSSA contact and MSSA County Coordinator in that county.

I’d like to have all volunteers in no later than next Monday.

I assume volunteers will be reasonably familiar with the concepts of freedom, constitutional government, and the right to bear arms. Eventually, we will build a Web page with a map of Montana where a person can click on a county and access contact information for the MSSA County Coordinator (maybe even a photo).

Thanks for your help sharing this part of the load!!

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

Second/Tenth Amendment rally, Helena, Saturday, March 27th

There will be a Second Amendment and Tenth Amendment rally on the front steps of the Montana State Capitol Building in Helena at High Noon on Saturday, March 27th. The event is expected to last until about 2 PM.

Rally organizer Tim Ravndal is advising that any carried firearms be unloaded for safety reasons. Feel free to bring and display posters and banners. Tim says he has ordered nice weather for the event.

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

Gun Safety Classes – Missoula area

Gun Safety for Personal Protection and Concealed Weapon Permits Course April 10th or April 18th

MISSOULA – A course entitled “Gun Safety for Personal Protection and Concealed Weapon Permits” will be hosted in Missoula by the Montana Shooting Sports Association and taught by Gary Marbut on both Saturday, April 10th and also on Sunday, April 18th. Both one-day courses will focus on safe handling, storage and use of handguns suitable for personal protection, selecting a personal firearm, issues of personal protection, allowable use of lethal force, concealed weapon permits, kids and gun safety, and shooting skills, and will include both classroom and shooting range sessions. Graduates will receive a credential qualifying them to apply for concealed weapon permits under Montana law. The class will begin at 9:00 AM, and finish about 4:00 PM. Class size is limited to the first 20 registrants and preregistration and pre-class study are required. The cost is $90 per student. Students should be 16 years or older. For further information or to register, call 549-1252 or email gary@marbut.com.
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Information: Gary Marbut, president MSSA, 549-1252

Note to prospective students: These two classes are the same, so you could attend on either the 10th, or the 18th. If you want into either class, call or email me and I’ll get you registered. If you send me an email, I will need your first and last name, a valid USPS mail address, a contact phone number, and which class you wish to attend.

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

First Precision Rifle Match of the season, 4/17

The first Precision Rifle Match of the season is scheduled for Potomac for Saturday, April 17th.

Our rifle matches will be scheduled for the third Saturday of each month through October, possibly minus July and August depending on how the fire season evolves.

If you haven’t fired one of these matches before, be sure to review the Website for information about times, procedures, etc.
http://www.marbut.com/rifle

I will only send this one announcement to the general MSSA email list. I keep a separate email list for information about these rifle matches. If you wish to also be on the “Rifle List” to get announcements about upcoming and/or recent Precision Rifle Matches, shoot me an email and ask to be put on the Rifle List.

Best wishes,

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

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