The President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association and the man who helped to craft many of Montana’s gun laws has taken exception to a print ad with Steve Bullock purporting to be a supporter of gun rights with a glaring safety error plain for everyone to see.

Steve Bullock is trying really hard to appeal to middle of the road and maybe uninformed people, and he himself is pretty uninformed about guns, which is why he posed for a photograph with a rifle pointed his chest for Pete's sake.

In the photo, Bullock is posing with a trophy animal with the rifle, barrel up, pointing directly at his own chest.

“Steve Bullock is trying really hard to appeal to middle of the road and maybe uninformed people, and he himself is pretty uninformed about guns, which is why he posed for a photograph with a rifle pointed his chest for Pete's sake,” said Marbut, himself a firearms instructor. “It's one of the most egregious firearm safety errors I've ever seen. And it's typical of somebody who's clueless about firearms.”

Marbut took the opportunity to remind voters about the many times that Governor Bullock has kept gun laws from advancing in the state legislature.

“Well, this guy who wants people to vote for him, maybe has forgotten so quickly that he vetoed 16 pro-gun bills during the time he was governor,” he said. “And I think the fact that he would pose for such an egregious gun safety violation photo just demonstrates that he is pandering for votes and is clueless about firearms.”

Marbut said there will be plenty of gun owners who will see the photo and realize the safety error.

“A lot of folks got the photo because Bullock mailed copies of that photo to who knows how many thousands of people,” he said.  “I think people are recognizing that it's a pretty egregious firearm safety violation. The rules of gun safety are clear. All guns are loaded, that’s rule number one, rule number two; don't point guns at anything you aren't willing to destroy. Yet despite that, Bullock posed for this photo with a loaded high powered rifle pointed his chest.

Marbut said that the vast majority of Montana gun owners learned these rules as they took Hunter’s Safety classes when they were 12 or 13 years old.

The NRA has been targeting Bullock, giving him an ‘F’ rating, while giving the incumbent Republican Steve Daines an ‘A-plus’ rating for his support of Second Amendment issues.

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