Honoring Gary Marbut’s Gun Rights Legacy in Montana

Here's the bottom line: we would not have all of the pro-gun, pro-2nd Amendment laws on the books in Montana if it were not for the efforts of Gary Marbut.

Gary Marbut started the Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA) nearly 30 years ago, but he's been advocating for gun-rights in the state for nearly 40 years. He was recognized by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter, several elected officials, and the members of the MSSA on Saturday night at a banquet in Missoula.

Here's the coolest part- the recognition was a complete surprise to Gary Marbut. A while back, John Lott, Jr. and other MSSA members told Gary they wanted to hold a banquet. Gary said, ok, but I'm tapped out with everything else I have to do- so you guys take it and run with it. And run with it they did.

The fact that the whole banquet was designed to be in honor of Gary Marbut ended up being a complete surprise to him, he told me on Saturday. I was honored to be the emcee for the event.

The list of MSSA achievements stretches several pages, and several decades. Here's a full list, and here is three of the most recent.

2021 – Permitless carry and more. MSSA’s landmark legislation designed to eliminate dangerous “gun free zones.” It includes permitless carry of firearms, restaurant carry, bar carry, and campus carry (the campus carry feature is now under attack by the education establishment with litigation in 2022.)

2021 – School parking lots. An MSSA-written law clarifies that a student may not be expelled from school because of a firearm in a locked vehicle in a school parking lot.

2021 – Inhibit federal gun control. An MSSA-written law prohibits state and local public employees from enforcing or aiding in enforcement of any new federal gun control laws or rules.

For his part, AG Knudsen also gave banquet attendees on his efforts as attorney general. AG Knudsen took the lead in stopping the confirmation of Joe Biden's previous nominee for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) last summer. David Chipman is a radical anti-gun lobbyist. Knudsen also spoke about the latest anti-gun nominee put forward by Biden. And, the AG highlighted his recent leadership on gun rights at the federal level.