*Editor’s Note*Below is an email message I received from Gary Marbut, President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association. It is a reminder to members of MSSA that beginning on March 1, 2010 will be the start of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Week. As a bonus, Marbut included a short recap of how the RKBA Week evolved.

Celebrate!!

In 1991 MSSA got a bill passed setting aside the first week of March as the official week in Montana to celebrate our cherished Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Here’s what the Montana law actually says:

1-1-224. Observance of right to keep and bear arms. The week beginning the first Monday in March is an official week of observance to commemorate Montana’s valued heritage of the right of each person to keep and bear arms in the defense of his home, person, or property or in aid of civil power. During this week, all Montanans are urged to reflect on their right to keep and bear arms and to celebrate this right in lawful ways.

So, if you wanted reason to plan a celebration, here it is. If you have interesting ideas about what you will do in your community, let me know and I’ll recirculate them to the MSSA e-list.

Also, if you’re interested and as a bonus, I’ll paste below the story about how this happened (one of the several “Legislative Tales” from my book Gun Laws of Montana – commercial teaser).

Best wishes,

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

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Legislative Tales
RKBA Week in Montana

In 1991, I was in the State Capitol lobbying for our successful “shall-issue” concealed weapon permit bill. It was difficult to get the attention of legislators because there was a tremendous controversy in the Legislature over whether or not Montana should adopt Martin Luther King day as a paid state holiday. That was a marginal issue here in Montana because there just aren’t many African-Americans living here. For many legislators, it seemed an issue awfully remote for Montana. But, the liberals in the Legislature really wanted the bill to pass, mostly I think to flex their political muscle. That session, we had a Republican governor, but the Democrats controlled the Senate and the House by slim margins. That made for a lot of partisan squabbling.

I had a bit different take on the issue. Considering how very many gun owners (90+% Montana households) and hunters we have in Montana, it seemed to me that if we could have a day for Dr. King, we ought to have a whole week to celebrate our right to keep and bear arms, and another whole week to celebrate our culture and heritage of hunting.

So, I sat in a chair in the hallway of the Capitol and wrote out two separate bills on a yellow, legal tablet. It was beyond the deadline in the session when individual legislators could introduce new bills, but it was not too late for whole committees to introduce new bills.

I took my two handwritten bill drafts to friends on the House Fish and Game Committee. The House F&G Committee loved my two bills, especially as a salve to a lot of hard feelings over the King holiday battle. So, the House F&G Committee had my two bills quickly drafted in official style, printed and introduced. The two bills were quickly approved by the Committee, flew through the Senate and House. The RKBA bill, HB594, passed the House by 90-7 on Third Reading, and passed the Senate by 45-5 on Third Reading. The Hunting Heritage bill, HB 613, passed the House on Third Reading by 89-9, and passed the Senate on Third Reading by 43-7. Both bills were signed by Governor Racicot, and are now the law in Montana, found at 1-1-224, M.C.A., and 1-1-226, M.C.A.

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