Bull*** vetoes

It was a few of the incumbent governor vetoes that inspired me to run for governor. How could anyone be that antagonistic to the people of Montana and still get elected?

Here are some that your governor should have supported, endorsed, aided and signed. But the elitist in that Helena chair prevented them from becoming law.

(By the way, campaign strategists teach that we should never mention our competition’s name; that we should not contribute to their name recognition. You will notice that other than in quotations I followed that advice in this article.)

Campus concealed carry bill

HB 240, introduced by Rep. Cary Smith (R-Billings), would have allowed licensed concealed-carry permit holders — who must pass a background check and complete a gun safety course — to carry their firearms on college campuses.

We know that headline-seeking or damage-maximizing assailants choose disarmed-victim zones for their deeds. Schools, theaters, churches, shopping malls and military installations disarmed by Clinton The First are places where laws prevent victims from shooting back … and stopping the carnage before it gets going. The incumbent governor thinks Montana schools should remain on that list in spite of both houses of the legislature voting to eliminate that vulnerability.

Indefinite detention bill

HB 522, introduced by Rep. Nick Schwaderer (R-Superior), would have prevented state agencies from enforcing portions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) pertaining to the indefinite detention of citizens without charge.

In a perfect example of George Orwell’s newspeak, the District of Criminals passed “The Patriot Act” – eliminating much of The Bill of Rights in the USofA, and undoing the positive results of the American Revolutionary War.

In vetoing that bill, he claimed that the federal government, created by the states, overrides the state governments that created them, and that the designers of our federal republic left no defense to the citizens for times the feds ran amok.

The Tenth Amendment Center puts it well:
“Either Montana Gov. Steve Bullock doesn’t understand the constitutional relationship between his state and the federal government, or he’s a liar.”
That is some strong language fershur, but a heckuva lot more accurate than that emitted by Stevie boy.

Montana state government very definitely should be a participating agency in the defense of life, liberty and property for the people of this state. Bull*** is absolutely wrong on this one.

Bill allowing hunters to use noise suppressors

HB 205, introduced by Rep. Krayton Kerns (R-Billings), would have allowed hunters to use sound suppressors on firearms in order to limit hearing damage and out of courtesy to nearby property owners.

All over Europe and the rest of the world, it is considered rude to use firearms without noise suppressors. While they do not silence the noise firearm discharge makes, they sure take the sting out of them, along with the hearing damage to people and animals nearby.

“I believe that most landowners prefer to hear the full report of a firearm when hunters or others are on their property.” — Gov. Steve Bullock.

How many of us did he ask? Oh, nevermind. He is soooo much smarter than we are. He can make these decisions a whole lot better than we can. In a free country, landowners could put up signs: – NO SOUND SUPPRESSORS ALLOWED – or the converse – NO UNSUPPRESSED FIREARMS ALLOWED. But we aren’t allowed that liberty. Thank you Steve.

Bill allowing tax credits for private school scholarships

SB 81, introduced by Sen. Dave Lewis (R-Helena), would have allowed income tax credits for contributions to non-profit private school scholarship organizations.

This was a cornerstone of my 2006 campaign for Idaho governor. I feel as strongly about it today as I did then. The absence of viable competition in the marketplace for places to send our children and grandchildren for education is a very bad thing. We would not accept taxpayer-funded monopolies in grocery stores, automobile manufacturers, computer suppliers or a thousand other places, how can we accept it in something so darn important as the entirety of our growing-up years?

THE STATE owns the training and majority of the waking hours for all children from 5 to 18 years old. I am not alone in seeing this as a problem. Tax deductions to support alternatives is a powerful antidote. Your governor must wholeheartedly support this. A Bull*** veto is absolutely the wrong thing.

And finally, I think this is the one that put me over the top, the elitist who travels in the company of armed guards carrying concealed weapons, vetoed HB 298.

Bill allowing “constitutional carry” in Montana

HB298, sponsored by Rep. Bill Harris, R-Winnett, said anyone eligible to carry a gun in Montana can carry a concealed weapon without a permit.

I am going to turn the explanation of this veto over to Gary Marbut of the Montana Shooting Sports Association:

“Steve Bullock, Governor of Montana, just vetoed HB 298, a bill that would have allowed non-criminal adults in 6/10ths of 1% of Montana to carry discreetly without advanced government permission. The rest of Montana, 99.4% of Montana, has been that way for 24 years now, entirely without the negative consequences now predicted if HB 298 had been signed by the Governor.

In order to justify his distrust of Montana people, Governor Bullock had to lie about the consequences of HB 298, unless you wish to be more generous and simply suppose that former Attorney General Bullock is dangerously incompetent in misunderstanding Montana law on the subject.

Just two of the several lies the Governor told to justify his veto from his veto letter are, “HB 298 would void our state’s reciprocity agreements with more than 40 states that recognize concealed weapon permits and it would void our laws allowing Montana permit holders to bypass the federal background check required for a firearm purchase.”

The first truth is that Montana has zero reciprocity agreements with any other states – none -, so there is nothing to be voided. Plus, HB 298 had no effect whatsoever on the existing Montana law recognizing permits of other states for use in Montana.

The second truth is that there is no way at all to bypass the federally-required background checks for Montana people to buy firearms from licensed dealers. All that Montana law does is to allow a permit to clarify that the buyer is not some other prohibited person who the federal computers may confuse the buyer with. Plus, HB 298 had no effect whatsoever on that existing Montana statute.

Really, the Governor knows this stuff, or at least he should unless he’s dangerously incompetent.

Or, Governor Bullock simply lied to the people of Montana in attempt to justify his rank distrust of Montana people, unlike Kansas Governor Brownback who appears to believe the people of Kansas more trustworthy than Bullock believes the people of Montana to be.”

Gary Marbut, President
Montana Shooting Sports Association
Author, Gun Laws of Montana

There are currently 11 states with constitutional carry. That would have been 12 without a Bull*** veto.

There are 22 States planning to introduce or that have already introduced Constitutional Carry laws in their legislatures.

Not much point in having both houses of the Montana legislature on our side while the governor is against us, is there?

Make the right choice November 8th and we can add Montana to the list.