MSSA President Gary Marbut on Talk Back

President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association Gary Marbut was on Friday’s Talk Back program answering questions from listeners about firearms issues.

Marbut, who has helped to author the majority of Montana’s gun laws over the last 20 years, spoke about legislation he’s working on for the 2021 session of the Montana Legislature.

“It looks like our flagship bill will be one to eliminate those dangerous gun free zones where only criminals are armed in all of the various aspects of Montana and there are a number of different kinds of gun free zones that are established in law,” said Marbut. “We would like to see those reduced.”

Marbut said all Montana citizens should be zealously guarding their Constitutional rights; among them being the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

“It should be important to all people because to have local governments willy-nilly being able to deprive you of constitutional rights is simply not right,” he said. “That's why we the people, when we form our government by establishing a constitution, we declare in those founding documents, and that is the constitution, that there are certain places that government may not tread, and the right to keep and bear arms is certainly one of those rights.”

Another listener asked Marbut about the safest way to buy or sell a firearm in Montana.

“I've written a guide about safe sale of firearms, and it's posted online,” he said. “It's in the public domain, and it's part of a resolution I've offered to the Missoula City Council that they can promote and offer to the people in Missoula. So those people who have questions about how to traffic or trade in firearms and do it safely with private transfers we'll have a guide for how to do that.”

Marbut said he has sent a comprehensive guide to the Missoula City Council featuring many topics surrounding firearms safety.

“One is the ‘Be Safe Program’ gun safety program for kids in first through third grades,” he said. “Also we recommend they endorse and support the Montana Hunter Education Program. The resolution also offers them the chance to support firearm safety education for adults offered throughout the community and finally, they can offer to the people of Missoula the safe transaction guide for buying and selling firearms.”

To find out more about the Montana Shooting Sports Association, click here.