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2015 Montana Shooting Sports Association Legislation – Montana RKBA
2015 Pro Gun, RKBA Legislation – Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA)
Montana’s once-every-two-years legislative session will begin on Monday, January 5th 2015. When the session convenes, things will happen quickly because the session only lasts 90 working days. You need to be prepared to keep up and weigh in.
Here is a list of the Bills presented by MSSA that are slated to debate during this session. Please familiarize yourselves with these Bills and share the information with your Friends and Family members. Once the Legislature convenes, we are going to need your help to get these passed into law in Montana. Please be prepared!
If you reside in the State of Montana, PLEASE ask your Legislators to support these bills! And if you reside in other States, please work to get similar legislation enacted in your State.
If you’re interested in participating in, and/or keeping track of the progress of MSSA RKBA legislation in Montana this legislative session, the following options are available to you:
1) You may “Like” and “Follow” the MSSA facebook page, which will be updated regularly during the legislative session beginning 01/05/2015. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Monta…3426517?ref=hl
2) You may contact MSSA and ask to be added to our legislative update email distribution list: mssa@mtssa.org
3) For questions and concerns regarding this, or any, legislation the MSSA is currently working on, you may contact the MSSA Legislative Coordinator at elisa@mtssa.org or on the MSSA Legislative Coordinator facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/MSSALegCoord
MONTANA SHOOTING SPORTS ASSOCIATION
2015 LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
1. Smokeless powder and primer production. There is a serious threat to our right to bear arms because of narrow, monolithic and federally-controlled manufacture of essential ammunition components, smokeless powder (propellant), primers and cartridge brass. For example, there are only two manufacturers of smokeless powder in the U.S., one plant owned by defense contractor General Dynamics and another owned by defense contractor Alliant Systems (ATK). All other smokeless powder used in the U.S. is imported, and subject to immediate and arbitrary import restrictions. And, General Dynamics and Alliant Systems are subject to a standard condition of military contracts that 100% of their production may be commandeered for military use at any time. Without ammunition, our firearms and our right to bear ammunition are worth nothing. We propose certain incentives to encourage small-scale production of ammunition components in Montana. That model includes offering liability protection to future producers, providing that such producers qualify for existing state assistance with financing, and will include a 20-year tax amnesty from start of business, which would give up zero current tax income to the state but would provide jobs for Montana.
http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2013/billhtml/HB0468.htm
2. Prohibit enforcement of new federal gun laws by Montana public employees. Every week there is talk of a new federal gun control bill, to limit magazine capacity, to outlaw semi-auto rifles, to ban common bullets, to limit the number of firearms a person may own, and many more. The principle has already been established by the U.S. Supreme Court (Printz v. US) that the federal government may not commandeer state and local government employees to implement federal programs. We propose that Montana public employees be prohibited from enforcing, or assisting to enforce, any federal gun laws that are not already in effect.
http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2013/billhtml/HB0302.htm
3. Allow safe travel to work and employee property right inside private vehicles. Employees have a property right to what they choose to carry in their vehicles, whether Bibles, newspapers, or firearms. Employees also have a constitutional right to be equipped to provide for their own personal protection when traveling to and from work. However, many private employers have made it a termination offense for an employee to have a firearm locked in the employee’s vehicle if that vehicle is parked in a company parking lot. Such employers assume no responsibility for employee safety during travel to and from work. We propose that employers be prohibited from firing employees only because that employee has a firearm locked in a privately owned vehicle in a company parking lot. This bill would require that any such firearms also be out of sight from outside the vehicle.
http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2013/billhtml/HB0571.htm
4. “Prohibited Places.” There is a badly-conceived statute at 45-8-328 to regulate “prohibited places.” This law allows anyone to carry a firearm openly in the listed places but prohibits those who have taken training, had a background check, obtained a concealed weapon permit from their sheriff from exercising their CWP in these “prohibited places.” We propose that this archaic and bad law be repealed. There is a backup, alternative solution at:
http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2013/billhtml/HB0358.htm
5. University system gun bans. The people of Montana have reserved from government interference the right to keep or bear arms in the Montana Constitution. The Montana university system is a government entity. The Montana Constitution gives the Board of Regents broad authority to manage the affairs of the U. system, but it gives the Board NO authority whatsoever to suspend, amend or abolish the Constitution and the rights the people have reserved to themselves from government interference. We propose a bill that withdraws all authority from the Board of Regents to restrict firearms on U. system campuses, and then gives back to the U. system narrowly-tailored authority to adopt certain restrictions that are sensible and also defensible under recent federal (Heller and McDonald) and state (Colorado, Oregon and Utah) court cases.
http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2013/billhtml/HB0240.htm
6. Sheriffs First – Law Enforcement Cooperation. Many Montanans, both citizens and people in public office, are concerned about the lack of accountability of federal officers conducting law enforcement operations in Montana. In Montana, we know the county sheriff and he is elected and accountable locally. We believe the sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer in the county, and ought to have the tools to implement that status. MSSA will offer a bill to require federal officers to obtain the written permission of the local sheriff before conducting an arrest, search, or seizure in the sheriff’s county. There are exceptions for federal reservations, Border Patrol, Immigration and Naturalization Service, close pursuit, when a federal officer witnesses a crime that requires an immediate response, if the sheriff or his personnel are under investigation, and other necessary exceptions. This bill was passed by the Legislature in 1995, but was vetoed by the Governor.
http://www.SheriffsFirst.net
7. Sound suppressors illegal for poaching only. Firearm suppressors do not “silence” firearms, but suppress somewhat the noise of the muzzle blast. They do nothing to attenuate the loud crack of the sonic boom as a bullet breaks the sound barrier all along its flight path. Currently, firearm suppressors are illegal for hunting. FWP argues this is necessary for them to be able to catch criminals who poach. We propose a bill to make use of suppressors illegal for poaching only, but not for general hunting. Some argue that use of suppressors for hunting is not “fair chase,” because the hunted animal would not hear the muzzle blast from a hunter’s rifle. This argument ignores physics – that a rifle bullet arrives before the sound of the muzzle blast because the bullet flies faster than the speed of sound. It ignores that a missed shot will startle the game animal with the nearby sonic boom before any sound of muzzle blast arrives. Finally, it ignores the common acceptance of “fair chase” hunting with absolutely silent arrows during archery season.
http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2013/billhtml/HB0205.htm
8. Harmonizing concealed weapon permit (CWP) requirements. Since 1991, a CWP has not been required for a law-abiding person to carry a concealed weapon in 99.4% of Montana – outside the limits of cities or towns. With over two decades of experience that not requiring CWPs for nearly all of Montana has not created any problems, we propose a bill to harmonize the law so a permit will no longer be required for a law abiding person to carry a concealed weapon in the remaining small 6/10ths of 1% of Montana, inside cities and towns. We intend to leave the permitting process in place, so citizens who desire them may still obtain CWPs for travel to other states that recognize Montana CWPs, and for firearm purchases at gun stores under the federal Brady Law. This change would exclude criminals from applicability – it would still be illegal for criminals to carry concealed weapons.
http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2013/billhtml/HB0304.htm
9. Clarify authority of school boards for firearms violations. An underreported tragedy in Montana is the number of students who have been disciplined, many expelled, for forgetting that their hunting rifle was locked in their vehicle, usually from a weekend hunt. When such a condition occurs in a school parking lot, ill-informed administrators usually tell reviewing school boards (incorrectly) that the board has no choice but to expel offending students because of mandatory federal law. However, unknown to these poorly-informed administrators, federal law on the subject specifically excludes from consideration any firearm locked in a vehicle in a school parking lot. About 450 Montana high school students have been expelled, and had their academic aspirations ruined for life, over this issue. We propose a bill to clarify for uninformed administrators and misinformed school boards that firearms locked in a student vehicle does not mandate expulsion, but that school boards have full discretion to apply discipline as needed and appropriate to the ingredients of the incident. This bill would NOT deprive school boards of tools to deal with genuine safety problems, but would clarify that firearms locked in vehicles do not MANDATE student expulsion.
http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2011/billhtml/HB0558.htm
10. Bankruptcy and Arms. Allow up to $5,000 of firearms, archery equipment and ammunition that a person has owned for a year or more to be exempt from claims under bankruptcy.
11. Home Guard. Expand upon existing laws establishing the Montana Home Guard to specify organization, mission, duties, responsibilities and control.
http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2011/billhtml/HB0278.htm
12. Shooting range funding. Montana began using some hunter license money to make matching grants to develop local shooting ranges in 1989. The program to build safe and suitable places for Montana people to shoot was put into state law in 1999, as the Shooting Range Development Program (SRDP). The funds for this program are approved each legislative session in the appropriations process for the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks budget. There are no general tax revenues used for this program, only the money hunters pay for licenses. The 2007 Legislature appropriated $1,000,000 for the SRDP. $600,000 was appropriated in 2009, and about $650,000 in 2011 and 2013. We ask that $1,000,000 be appropriated to the SRDP in the 2014 legislative session, regardless of any FWP opposition to that level of funding.
Ninth Circuit Rules in Firearms Freedom Act Case
NEWS RELEASE
(August 23, 2013 – for immediate release)
Ninth Circuit Rules in Firearms Freedom Act Case
MISSOULA, MONT. – The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals released its opinion today in MSSA v. Holder, the lawsuit brought in federal court to validate the principles of the Montana Firearms Freedom Act (MFFA). The MFFA was enacted by the Montana Legislature and signed into law by then Governor Brian Schweitzer in 2009. The MFFA declares that any firearms made and retained in Montana are not subject to any federal regulation under the power given to Congress in the U.S. Constitution to regulate commerce among the states. The MFFA uses firearms as a vehicle to challenge federal commerce clause power.
Plaintiffs in MSSA v. Holder are the Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA), the Second Amendment Foundation, and Gary Marbut, President of MSSA. To set up the legal challenge, Marbut determined to manufacture a youth-model, .22 caliber, bolt-action rifle called the Montana Buckaroo. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms informed Marbut that any such unlicensed manufacture would be illegal under federal law.
Despite Marbut’s BATF-prohibited plans to make the Montana Buckaroo, the federal District Court ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the lawsuit, and dismissed the lawsuit. MSSA appealed this dismissal to the Ninth Circuit.
In its long-awaited ruling today, the Ninth Circuit reversed the federal District Court on the standing issue, saying that Marbut has standing to bring the challenge, but held that existing Supreme Court precedent was against plaintiffs on the merits of the lawsuit.
Marbut commented, This was about as good of a ruling as we could have expected from the Ninth Circuit. We must get to the U.S. Supreme Court to accomplish our goal of overturning 70 years of flawed Supreme Court rulings on the interstate commerce clause. We knew that the Ninth Circuit couldn’t help us with that. Only the Supreme Court can overturn Supreme Court precedent. However, now that the standing question is resolved in our favor, we have the green light to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Marbut says the attorneys involved are already beginning to work on the appeal process.
Marbut continued, The time is ripe in America for states to challenge federal power, from Obamacare to indefinite detention, to illegal spying on U.S. Citizens and media, to IRS abuses of power, and more. It was the states which created this federal government that has grown to become such a monster. It’s time for the states to get their creature back on a leash. With MSSA v. Holder, we will offer the Supreme Court a chance to do just that.
Since the MFFA was initially enacted in Montana in 2009, nine other states have enacted clones of the MFFA, and 20-some additional states have introduced MFFA-clone bills. The lawsuit to validate the MFFA principles, MSSA v. Holder, has attracted many intervenors and amicus curiae parties. These include the State of Montana, the attorneys general of eight other states, Montana legislators, legislators from other states, the Goldwater Institute, Gun Owners Foundation, the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, the CATO Institute, the Weapons Collectors Society of Montana, the Pacific Legal Foundation, and others.
More information about the Firearms Freedom Act movement and lawsuit is available at:
http://www.FirearmsFreedomAct.com
Information: Gary Marbut, 406-549-1252
Gary Marbut, President
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
Author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.MTPublish.com
Can Feds Bulldoze State Constitutional Protections?
L to R Nick Dranias, attorney for Goldwater Institute; Gary Marbut; Quentin Rhoades, attorney for Marbut, MSSA
In a courtroom gun fight that has the potential to disrupt many of Barack Obama’s plans for national gun lists, laws and limits, attorneys have told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the U.S. Constitution does not give Washington unlimited authority to bulldoze over state efforts to protect the constitutional rights of their citizens.
At issue is the years-old Montana Firearms Freedom Act, which was argued before the appeals court in a special session in Portland, Ore.
The law simply says firearms made, sold and kept in Montana are not subject to federal interstate commerce regulations.
Attorney Nick Dranias, who represented the amicus parties of the Goldwater Institute and others in the arguments, said the case should be returned to the lower court for discovery and development of evidence, because it is a case of first impression and the lower courts dismissed it without that opportunity.
He asked the judges to remember that the federal government was created by the states and that the states granted certain limited powers to the federal government. Where those rights were not granted to Washington, the states’ people retain all rights….
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Montana shooters to challenge AG holder in court March 4th
By Gary Marbut, Montana Shooting Sports Association
Nearly a decade of carefully planned effort to challenge federal Commerce Clause power will see another landmark on Monday, March 4th, when MSSA v. Holder has oral argument before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Portland, Oregon. MSSA in the case caption is the Montana Shooting Sports Association whose President, Gary Marbut, crafted the original Montana Firearms Freedom Act (MFFA) in 2004 specifically to lay the groundwork for this current litigation.
Gary Marbut and The Montana Shooting Sports Association Letter To Fish and Wildlife “Protection” Agency….. BE HONEST AND DO YOUR JOB, OR NO MORE FUNDS!
[TWG Note: Below is a letter, written by Gary Marbut, President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association to the Fish and Wildlife “Protection” agency. I think you’ll find it most interesting, particularly if you live in Montana, Washington, Idaho and Oregon. Please see my personal note below the letter, and please help me in sending Mr. Marbut a heartfelt THANKS for his efforts on behalf of our gun rights, wildlife, hunters and for all Americans who feel that Federal agencies have overstepped their boundaries.]
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Shane Colton
FWP Commission
Shane,
See the story in the Bozeman Chronicle at:
http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/ap_news/montana/article_dcde1660-dd51-59b1-8515-a8e0b9957576.html
This is the first overt symptom of the agency “death spiral” for FWP.
For two decades, FWP has come to focus on wildlife and biology, when it should have been focused on fish and game. A significant part of this picture has been FWP’s shocking tolerance and support for large predators. FWP’s total, willing, even eager cooperation with large predator enhancement has long been predicted to result in an economic crash for the agency, when the word unavoidably spreads that there is no game left to hunt so there is no reason to buy a license.
FWP leaders have for too long leaned on the scales of policy by making excuses for the devastation wrought to game herds by large predators, fudging game counts and census numbers, and blaming any population declines that could not be covered up on climate change, sunspots, or aliens – anything but the truth. This coverup culture has been fostered by senior staff, always near retirement, who knew they’d be gone and not in the hot seat when the crisis actually arrived.
If the overall FWP attitude had not been so Hell-bent on “ecosystem management,” “biological diversity,” “natural balance” and other similar catchy but terminal “green” ideas destined to end hunting, FWP managers could have projected the current crisis years ago. I guess nobody at FWP noticed or cared several years ago when the editor of the NRA’s American Hunter magazine wrote a feature article about his fruitless elk hunting trip to southwest Montana, a trip where the only tracks he saw were wolf tracks. Nobody at FWP noticed or cared about the other thousands of warnings from Montana citizens. Worse, those warnings were ignored in a mad pursuit of a “green” agenda for FWP.
The stock mantra from FWP managers has been: We’re the professionals. We know best. The outcome concerned citizens project will never come to pass. The “evidence” of crashing game herds citizens cite is just “campfire stories” and is without merit because it doesn’t come from professional FWP biologists.
Yet when retired FWP employees, freed from the institutional FWP muzzle, asserted that FWP-tolerated wolves were turning the Montana landscape into a “biological desert,” FWP dismissed such comments summarily.
For the last two decades, FWP has been busy digging a hole for itself. As it sees daylight disappearing around the edges of the hole, it still won’t quit digging.
Of course, the obvious solution for the bureaucratic-bound and reality-disconnected FWP will be to announce, “We’ve been managing wildlife for the general public (including the non-Montana public) for years. Now we need the general public to pay the bills.” FWP has so fouled its nest by inadvisably removing hunters from the economic equation that it will eventually have to go to the Legislature asking for relief, including increased fees that hunters simply won’t pay to access a vanishing resource, and, ultimately, general taxpayer money.
You can bet that when FWP approaches the Legislature demanding an allowance increase as a reward for having flunked Econ 101, MSSA and thousands of Montana hunters will be there to say “Absolutely no way.” FWP has not only ignored the many warnings from Montana hunters, it has mocked and disrespected them.
What FWP needs is not more or alternate sources of money, but a total change in attitude and culture. Until that happens, let FWP starve! It is not serving Montanans.
Sincerely yours,
Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com
[TWG Note: Gary Marbut, President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, has been diligently and tirelessly advocating for hunters, wildlife and for our Second and Tenth Amendment Rights not only here in Montana, but all over the country. We can Thank Him for the Firearms Freedom Act, among many, many successful legislative efforts and accomplishments on our behalf. Mr. Marbut is an amazing individual, and I hope you’ll join me in thanking him for his efforts and success.
I’ve personally witnessed Mr Marbut’s relentless work here at the Montana Legislature and in numerous opinion articles he’s written in his efforts to expose the truth about gun rights, wildlife and Tenth Amendment issues. He’s a SUPERSTAR in my book, and if you can help support his efforts, I’m certain a donation in any amount would be very much appreciated by him. If you’d like to become a member of The Montana Shooting Sports Association, you can show your support by purchasing a membership for a mere $25 You do not need to be a resident of Montana to join the Montana Shooting Sports Association. Donations and membership fees are used to help Gary’s efforts in advocating for our rights not just here in Montana, but all across America.
Armed and Ready: New Mexico Residents Defy Federal Government
Here’s another encouraging article about the surging Sovereignty movement!
We, The People have HAD ENOUGH! I’ve recently posted articles HERE , HERE , HERE , and HERE about the Sheriff’s First Movement and Sheriff Mack’s organization, County Sheriff Project
Armed and Ready: New Mexico Residents Defy Government
…….If there were more sheriffs like those in New Mexico serving around the country, we would be well on the way to safeguarding our liberties against Washington’s “invasions of the public liberty.” It also might occur to the Congress that more examples of sheriffs interposing themselves might result in shrinking down the federal government to do little more than just funding the national defense.
Montana AG Steve Bullock….. Picking and Choosing Which Laws We, The People Must Obey…. AGAIN.
[TWG NOTE: Montana Commie AG Steve Bullock….. picking and choosing which laws We, The People will obey. The stoners like the tenth amendment, but ONLY if it protects their right to get stoned on drugs and shoot guns. To Hell with everything else, as long as they get their pot. Can’t wait for a Conservative to take the helm and pick & choose which laws THEY will obey. Isn’t it comforting to know the glassy eyed stoners will be legally allowed to own, carry and use firearms??? Shut up and pass the joint. I’m hunting hogs today.]
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A new directive from the federal government’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives concerning the rights of medical marijuana patients to own or possess firearms runs contrary to state and federal law and should not be enforced, Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock told the U.S. Justice Department Monday.
As hunting season draws near, Montanans are buying guns and ammunition and “preparing to enjoy an activity that is deeply rooted in our heritage and culture,” Bullock told Attorney General Eric Holder in a Monday letter.
The ATF’s edict that marijuana users may not own or possess firearms or ammunition “implicates serious legal issues under the Second Amendment, and the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fifth Amendment,” Bullock said. It also flies in the face of the state constitution, which protects the right to hunt….(Con’t)
CONTINUE READING HERE: http://www.belgrade-news.com/news/state_regional/article_01c3e6b6-eea4-11e0-830a-001cc4c03286.html
Are Montana Sheriffs Knowingly Associating With Communists, Globalists and Gun Grabbers?
As I was reviewing some history on the Montana Sheriff’s First (SB 114) legislation, passed in both house and senate and vetoed by Governor Schweitzer, I stumbled across this very interesting and informative article written by our Friend Elias Alias in January 2011.
It appears we have a LOT of courtesy flushing to do here in the Great State of Montana. I think you’ll find this article very interesting and very well written. I suggest you investigate these issues in your State so that We, The People know exactly who we’ve got leading our States (our Liberty, our Freedom and our gun rights) straight down the crapper.
Why are Montana Sheriffs Associating with Communists and Gun Grabbers?
by Elias Alias, Montana Oath Keepers, USMC Vietnam veteran
Scenario SB 114
If the mayor is under attack For gaming behind your back, Look-out Jack, better step back – Duck the flak, but stay on track.
Scenario: Deception distorts perception in the debate on SB-114, the Sheriffs First bill:
The people of Montana are grateful to Senator Shockley for reminding the people that Montana’s legislators are primarily Montanans and only secondarily serve as occasional legislators. They do not have to specialize in American history or in Constitutional studies.
We are now told that because the North won the Civil War, the conclusion we all should draw from that is that Federal law trumps State law, “like it or not.” Somehow Lincoln managed to rewrite the Tenth Amendment by winning a war – or did he? Let us make a scenario.
In our scenario, an amateur student of history who has given countless hours over many years to study the Constitution and the contexts of the era in which it was written, shows up at a committee hearing for a particular bill to speak for a bill, and finds to his dismay that the citizen legislators, some of whom have not bothered to learn the important lessons of history, are enmeshed in a tightly-orchestrated schedule and cannot grant one enough time to pack even the most condensed quintessence of ten years’ worth of study into a two-minute presentation before the committee.
Perhaps that is simply a blow delivered by bureaucracy’s inherent constructs, the infrastructure of organized governance. All can see that it is impersonal, that it is just how busy sessions work.
But our scenario grows darker when we recall the recent hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, January 21, 2011. The bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee was Senate Bill-114, commonly referred to as the “Sheriffs First” bill. The public was invited to appear before the Committee and speak for or against the Sheriffs First bill. A number of Montanans drove to Helena to stand before the microphone and plead for passage of this important bill.
However, the citizens who spoke for the bill were opposed by a battery of public employees who showed up to speak against the bill. Interesting, that. As reported, all who spoke against the bill were public servants, while the people from the private sector were in favor of the bill. There was that clear delineation – public servant vs the public. In this scenario, the public servants are convinced that they know what is best for the public, and shall wield the public power of office to ensure that the public gets only the laws which public servants deem appropriate. That begs the question, “Who is serving who?”
The citizens who support the bill, including attorneys, represent the sector of Montana society which encourages study into Constitutional issues, constitutional philosophy, study into contexts, study into history, and Supreme Court precedent. These citizens represent the aware and conscientious patriots within Montana who do as the founders insist all citizens should do – which is to be ever vigilant in watching over the manner in which government administers itself upon the governed.
Opposing the citizens were “associations” or lobbies for ‘special interests’. Of the several opponents of the bill present at the hearing, one in particular is handy for this extended scenario. We shall try to be elegant as we review some things, but we must now name a lobby which opposed the Sheriffs Bill. Of all things, it was the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (MSPOA). The spokesperson for MSPOA was Helena Mayor Jim Smith, a man with considerable connections at the core of governance.
He is the mayor of the State Capitol, after all. So let’s take a look at him from the city’s website:
http://www.ci.helena.mt.us/departments/commission/mayor-and-commissioners/mayor-smith.html
There we read: – quoting from city’s page on Mayor Jim Smith –
“ In 1978 he began working on public policy issues, with the Montana Seniors Citizens Association and the Rocky Mountain Development Council. In 1983 Jim began working as a Lobbyist at the Montana Legislature. He has lobbied every Session since, working for a variety of human service, health care, law enforcement and local government associations and organizations. In 1994 Jim became a co-owner of Smith and McGowan, Inc., a lobbying, management and government relations firm located in downtown Helena. The firm’s clients include: the Montana Council of Community Mental Health Centers, the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, the Montana County Attorneys Association, the American Cancer Society, and others.”
– end quote –
So that is part of our scenario – the gentleman is a well-connected lobbyist. A professional lobbyist. He advocates professionally for organizations, both public and private. He’s got position, and personality.
Speaking of personality traits, there is this tidbit, published on December 17, 2009 by the Missoula Independent.
http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/targeting-gun-violence/Content?oid=1198586
– quoting –
[Bob] McKelvey and [“Mike” Meyer] Chessin founded Montanans United to Stop Gun Violence (MU-SGV) years ago to combat what they saw as a serious problem in the state. Late this summer, they finally reached out and approached state Reps. Dick Barrett and Ron Erickson, both of Missoula, about helping the group. In November, Helena Mayor Jim Smith joined MU-SGV’s steering committee.
“I think it’s a voice that needs to be heard in the debate here in Montana over gun rights,” says Smith, who has lobbied against concealed weapons carry for 15 years. “I don’t think there’s another grassroots organization or a group of ordinary citizens who are committed to the end of gun violence and the maintenance of a civil society.”
The group faces a number of tasks for 2010, most immediate of which is agreeing what issue to use as a rallying point. McKelvey says he has growing concerns over the rising number of open carriers in the Bitterroot—an issue highlighted by recent Celebrating Conservatism meetings that feature numerous attendees with firearms. But Barrett says putting open carry practices in the group’s crosshairs could galvanize Second Amendment proponents.
– end quoted passages from the Missoula Independent –
Our scenario continues to develop. We have a ‘lobbying personality’ which is running a city in Montana and providing its talents to the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and the Montana County Attorneys Association, and lo and behold, this lobbying personality, presently dwelling like a clouded dream in the head of the Mayor of Helena, has taken a seat on the steering committee for a gun control group run in part by a fellow traveler named “Mike” Meyer Chessin.
Montanans who enjoy traditional gun culture in Montana are seen by Mr. Chessin to be “a serious problem”. He apparently has concerns about the Celebrating Conservatism movement in the Bitterroot, who lawfully carry their guns openly, but I’m sure he doesn’t think the Maiden of Montana Liberty, Ms Mona Docteur, would pop a cap on him. Surely he is not paranoid about his vision of a gun-free Montana, a somewhat delusional vision which he entitles “…the maintenance of a civil society”.
But what can we ask about Mr. Chessin, Mayor Smith’s partner at the Montanans United To Stop Gun Violence organization?
May we ask if he once was a professor at the University of California at Berkeley?
May we ask if, owing to alleged communist affiliations, Mr. Chessin fled UCB during the McCarthy era at a time when communists were being expunged from public offices?
May we also ask whether at that same time the University of Montana was having accreditation problems for not having sufficient numbers of ‘accredited’ professors?
And may we further ask whether the University of Montana picked up a handful of trans-locating communist professors, (some of whom were fleeing their offices under light of public scrutiny), at a discount price, including Botany professor Chessin?
Finally, may we ask whether students who attended U of M during that time readily admit that Chessin kept posters of Stalin and Lenin on his office walls at the U of M?
We are just asking questions of course, but we can be sure that Chessin does not approve of Montana’s gun culture, its traditions, and its importance in today’s world.
Question – aren’t communists always against allowing a population to keep and bear arms? And isn’t the keeping and bearing of arms one of our denoted “inalienable rights”, which public officials are sworn to protect on our behalf?
Another question. Why would the University of Montana take down the Internet page which could have revealed the reasons we have so many questions today regarding Chessin?
The information on faculty-member Chessin, now removed from the www, used to be at this link – it’s a dead link now:
http://www.umt.edu/journalism/student_work/veterans_history_project/mikechessin.html
Scenario:
The fearless professional lobbyist who is also the Mayor of Helena, Montana, sits on the steering committee for an anti-gun group with an alleged – but unproven – communist sympathizer at the same time he is providing his services to the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and the Montana County Attorneys Association.
On their behalf, in their names, he has stood before the Montana Senate’s Judiciary Committee to oppose a bill which would affirm the (Montana) constitutional Sheriff’s authority as the highest law enforcement officer in his County. This he did while the unanimous voices of the citizens were entered into the record requesting that the Committee move the bill forward.
The citizens’ voices were confronted by Mr. Smith’s retort that:
“The sheriffs of Montana really do not want to be pawns in anyone else’s political games.”
Is it not the quintessence of gall for a man to seek to install against the wishes of the people
“…the maintenance of a civil society”,
which is a politicization in itself, by accusing freedom-loving Montanans of playing political games?
Shouldn’t Smith admit that the ‘Montanans United to Stop Gun Violence’ organization is indeed “politicizing” an issue of our County Sheriffs’ authority?
Isn’t MU-SGV a self-declared political organization with a self-declared mission to infringe upon Montanans’ rights to keep and bear arms – perhaps with the instigation of avowed communists?
Gary Marbut, of Montana Shooting Sports Association wrote this Sheriffs First bill. Gary is the same author who gave us the successful Montana Firearms Freedom Act of 2009. Gary Marbut represents the voice of the Montana citizenry. Gary Marbut is not a lobbyist for any government office or agency. Gary Marbut defends the Montana Constitution on behalf of a free people.
Yet the professional lobbyist for MSPOA and MCAA is representing an anti-gun-rights agenda at the same time he purports to lobby for our Sheriffs and Peace Officers.
Who is politicizing what here?
Are the Sheriffs Smith purports to represent actually as anti-gun as Smith, or is Smith using the Sheriffs as pawns in the Smith/Chessin anti-gun game?
Some may say that kind of question begs “standing”. Very well. Here is some standing –
We are asking questions about the propriety of lobbying, its place in our lives, where it fits into our world. What does a lobbyist do?
Lobbyists are “statists” who represent “interests” in efforts to shape, mold, and structure state authority in ways which benefit the “interests” who pay for such services.
What is a “statist”?
A statist is one who values and believes in the power of the state (as in, the government, on whatever level). Statists use the force of the state to animate their policy, which is derived from their personal perception of various systems available to them.
Communists, for example, are statists, as also are ‘collectivists’ and ‘Marxist socialists’ or ‘progressives’ harking back to Colonel Edward M. House and Woodrow Wilson.Neo-cons are also statists.
Communism, like Marxism or socialism or any other governmental “ism”, is based on the individual’s willingness to believe in the power of the state, and the use of that power to control or regulate others. That is a psychological element of a perception which elicits a personal response in harmony with one’s view of life on earth – one’s “perception”.
A lobbyist who is a collectivist, or one who is a statist, can be employed to shape public perception in ways which benefit one’s client’s interests. A lobbyist who chooses to represent a government arm, such as, say, the office of County Sheriff, but brings a statist perception to the table, may, if one is not exceedingly careful, awaken the very Sheriffs and Peace Officers upon whose good name said lobbyist rides.
Question – Do the Sheriffs and Peace Officers who are represented by this particular statist lobbyist know that he also works with an anti-gun organization?
Did Mr. Smith call the Sheriffs of Montana’s Counties to see how they felt about SB-114, the Sheriffs First bill?
Was the lobbying of the Mayor fortified by the spread of “official” views for each Sheriff to hold regarding this bill, before Mr. Smith purported to represent their personal views to the Senate Judiciary Committee?
We do know that at least two courageous Sheriffs have taken stands for the bill, much to their respective Counties’ glory. We wonder what the other Sheriffs may think. There is, after all, an Oath to the Constitution, and that Oath is, as President John Adams said long ago, “a sacred obligation”, which is why the Oath was written into the Constitution – to bind a public servant down to honorable service to the people who created the government, to ‘we the people’.
How many Sheriffs in Montana will stand on their Oath?
How many Montana Sheriffs recognize the need for a powerful buffer between Federal intrusion and the inalienable rights of the people?
How many Montana Sheriffs truly want a communist sympathizing anti-gun professional lobbyist representing them before the people’s legislature?
But there is more. Let us add some color to our scenario. This is a pdf.
http://www.montanaviewpoint.com/ads/oct-16pg.pdf
We have to ask. Is Mayor Smith’s fair City of Helena involved in any way with the United Nations’ Agenda-21 and ICLEI? What do those terms mean? Here is an excerpt from that pdf:
The specific plan is called United Nations Agenda 21 Sustainable Development. By now, most Americans have heard of sustainable development but are largely unaware of Agenda 21.
ICLEI was founded in 1990 as the ‘International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives’. The Council was established when more than 200 local governments from 43 countries convened at the ICLEI inaugural conference, the World Congress of Local Governments for a Sustainable Future, at the United Nations in New York. In a nutshell, the plan (Agenda 21) calls for governments to take control of all land use and not leave any of the decision making in the hands of private property owners.
It is assumed that people are not good stewards of their land and the government will do a better job if they are in control. Individual rights in general are to give way to the needs of communities as determined by the governing body.
This is now being implemented in several Montana cities, and Helena is one. We must wonder, who lobbied to get ICLEI operating in Helena?
Do the people of Helena know with cognizance that a United Nations radical and extreme land-control program has been installed in their city?
Could city planning be affected by anti-gun-rights affiliations?
Isn’t that a part of what Smith’s partner sees as “…the maintenance of a civil society”?
To really understand what the United Nations’ Agenda 21 Sustainable Development and ICLEI are all about, read often at the best online source for the full picture – Michael Shaw’s remarkable site, Freedom Advocates: http://www.freedomadvocates.org/
So let us see. We have a lobbying Mayor representing the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and the Montana County Attorney Association in opposition to the Sheriffs First bill, and he works at the same time with an anti-gun organization which is pondering getting rid of our right to openly carry our guns, and all the while he’s not embarrassed to make deals or cooperate with the United Nations, which seeks a higher authority over our U.S. Constitution.
And this guy claims to be representing our communities’ law enforcement? And our County Attorneys?
That’s quite a scenario.
Does Helena’s Mayor have some help from within those organizations?
Yes. He does. Gallatin County Attorney Marty Lambert took time from his busy schedule to speak against the bill at the Committee hearing, and spat a bit of his own vitriolic resentment that, in his misguided view of SB 114, the people’s elected Sheriff should have the power to interfere with his federal associations. Dr. Ed Berry has already quoted him, but just for the record, Mr. Lambert sees the bill as an infringement on his job.
Could that infringement in any way affect his friendly relationship with the federal agencies operating in his County?
Aren’t the in-state activities of Federal agencies/agents part of the object of this bill?
How would the Sheriff’s lawful duty to require all federal agents to obtain the Sheriff’s written permission prior to search, seizure, or arrest of any County citizen somehow threaten the Attorney’s job unless the Attorney has discrete liaison with federal offices?
Where in this Sheriffs First bill is any Sheriff instructed to manage the office of the County Attorney?
But wait – doesn’t that bring us back to the opening of this lengthy screed?
We began by talking about citizen legislators and we noted that Senator Shockley gave us pause with his statement regarding his conclusion about the Civil War. Senator Shockley mused that since the North won the war, that settled the question of Federal vs State sovereignty. States are under the authority of the Federal government, as he would say it. His gracenote was “Like it or not”.
But we may ask next, what about the Montana Firearms Freedom Act of 2009?
It was passed into law, signed into law, and immediately the Federal ATF declared that Federal law trumps Montana law, sending letters to that effect to each FFL in the State.
Did not the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association oppose that bill also, as they are opposing the Sheriffs First bill this session? (Or was it just their lobbyist?)
But the real question to ask is whether the Federal denial of our lawfully-enacted Firearms Freedom Act of 2009 would be weakened by the passage of the Sheriffs First bill?
What about Montana’s medical marijuana law, which the Federal government also refuses to recognize?
How would the Sheriffs First bill affect the Feds’ insane push to over-ride Montana’s law?
Do the people of Montana have any sovereignty if their voted and legislated will is subject to Federal incursion?
And isn’t it Federal incursion when the Federal government threatens Montana with Federal powers to over-ride the written will and law of the Montana people?
And is not the Sheriffs First bill a threat to that kind of Federal mischief?
Dr. Ed Berry has alluded already to the Mack/Printz Supreme Court decision of 1997. The full story on that is available at Sheriff Mack’s website –
Enough can’t be said about that landmark decision. Icing on the cake with that decision is the fact that then-County Sheriff of Ravalli County, Montana, the distinguished patriot Sheriff Jay Printz, was Sheriff Mack’s partner in the suit against Clinton’s Brady bill. Two Sheriffs, one from Arizona and one from Montana, sued the Federal government and won, and part of the majority opinion, written by Justice Scalia, goes like this:
“It is incontestable that the Constitution established a system of ‘dual sovereignty’… Although the States surrendered many of their powers to the new Federal Government, they retained ‘a residuary and inviolable sovereignty,’…
“Residual State sovereignty was also implicit, of course, in the Constitution’s conferral upon Congress of not all governmental powers, but only discrete, enumerated ones, which implication was rendered express by the Tenth Amendment’s assertion that ‘the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people….
“The great innovation of this design was that our citizens would have two political capacities, one state and one federal, each protected from incursion by the other… The Constitution thus contemplates that a State’s government will represent and remain accountable to its own citizens.” – Justice Scalia
Senator Shockley, it can’t get any more clear than that. The Federal government did not create the States, and it does not give us any “rights” – the Civil War did nothing to damage the Tenth Amendment. The Federal government was created by the States to protect individual rights which are clearly stated to be unalienable rights. That means, no government can place a lien on our God-given/Natural rights.
Senate Judiciary Committee, think on these things please. Listen to your people.
The people of Montana want the Sheriffs First bill passed into law. Support the people and the State of Montana as we resist Federal incursion and Federal intrusion. Acknowledge the citizens’ rightful seat of legitimacy and authority in this Republic of law. The document begins with, is of, by, and for, “we the people”.
Choose the people over the special interests, over the socialists, over the communists, over the professional lobbyists. Choose the law as written, not a lobbyist’s interpretation of law. The perception of the opponents of this bill has been furnished to them by Federal programming and a dependency on Federal funding. It is only natural that they, joined at the waist with Federal programs, would oppose this move by the people to reclaim Montana sovereignty.
Good Senators, please hold dear Montana’s historic culture of freedom, and celebrate Montana’s compliance with the Constitution for the united States of America. Please pass SB-114.
Thank you for reading.
Salute!
Elias Alias, Montana Oath Keepers, USMC Vietnam veteran
Notes, brief bibliography –
Freedom Advocates – http://www.freedomadvocates.org/ Michael Shaw
ICLEI – http://www.iclei.org/index.php?id=about
Mack/Printz v United States – http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/95-1478.ZO.html
Montana Shooting Sports Association – http://www.mtssa.org/ Gary Marbut
Oath Keepers – http://www.oathkeepers.org/ Stewart Rhodes
Liberty Fellowship – http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/ Dr. Chuck Baldwin
Matrixx Productions – Creator of these films is James Jaeger:
Fiat Empire – http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5232639329002339531#
Cultural Marxism – http://www.realityzone.com/culturemarx.html
Original Intent – http://www.originalintent.us/single.htm
Corporate Fascism – http://www.corporatefascism.org/
The Purse And The Sword – by Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr., holder of four degrees from Harvard. This is the definitive advanced Constitutional course, over eight viewing hours’ worth, on sound money and the lawful Militia of the several States:
< http://www.heritageresearchinstitute.org/PurseSwordPage.htm >
Constitutional “Homeland Security”: Volume 1: The Nation In Arms
by Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr.; copyright 2007 by Edwin Vieira, Jr.; Bookmasters, Inc., 30 Amberwood Parkway, Ashland, Ohio 44805; International Standard Book Number (10): 0-9671759-2-5; International Standard Book Number (13): 978-0-9671759-2-8.
To order Dr. Vieira’s Constitutional Homeland Security, order your copy directly from Dr. Vieira: $19.95 postpaid, by check or money order to:
Edwin Vieira * 52 Stonegate Court * Front Royal, Virginia 22630
How To Dethrone The Imperial Judiciary
by Dr. Edwin Vieira; copyright 2004-2005 Vision Forum Ministries; Content copyright 2004-2005 The Conservative Caucus Research, Analysis, And Education Foundation and Dr. Edwin Vieira; Vision Forum Ministries, 4719 Blanco Rd., San Antonio, Texas 78212, www.visionforum.org; ISBN – 10 0-9755264-1-3; ISBN – 13 078-0-9755264-1-5.
The Conservative Revolution: Why We Must Form a Third Political Party to Win It
by Nelson Hultberg; copyright 2009 by Nelson Hultberg; published by Americans for a Free Republic, P.O. Box 801213, Dallas, Texas 75380-1213; ISBN: 1-891191-45-4. http://www.afr.org/ Mr. Hultberg also works with The Daily Bell: http://www.thedailybell.com/
Unalienable Rights And The Denial Of The U.S. Constitution
by Michael E. LeMieux; copyright 2007 by Michael E. LeMieux; published by PUBLISHAMERICA,LLLP; www.publishamerica.com; Baltimore; ISBN: 1-60441-785-4;
Michael LeMieux is the Nebraska chapter President for Oath Keepers.
The Constitution In Exile: How the Federal Government has Seized Power by Rewriting the Supreme Law Of The Land.
by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano; copyright 2006 by Andrew P. Napolitano; published by Nelson Current, a division of a wholly owned subsidiary (Nelson Communications, Inc.) of Thomas Nelson, Inc., in Nashville, Tennessee; email: SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.
Lies The Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History
by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano; foreword by Ron Paul; copyright 2010 by Andrew P. Napolitano; published in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas Nelson, a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.; ISBN: 978-1-59555-266-2.
The County Sheriff: America’s Last Hope
by Sheriff Richard Mack; copyright by Richard Mack 2009; www.sheriffmack.com; published by Sheriff Mack, P.O. Box 971, Pima, Arizona 85543.
Nullification: How To Resist Federal Tyranny In The 21st Century
by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.; copyright 2010 by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.; published by Regenery Publishing, Inc., One Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001, www.regnery.com; ISBN: 978-1-59698-149-2.
THE WAKING GIANT 