Gary Marbut, President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, told the Great Falls Tribune that he is reviewing Montana state laws and considering whether it is feasible to challenge laws on college campuses that prohibit possessing firearms. After the recent ruling in McDonald v. Chicago, Marbut wonders if such laws could be overturned.
Marbut was quoted as saying, “The Montana Constitution does give the Board of Regents broad power to manage the university system, but it doesn’t give them any power at all to suspend people’s constitutional rights.” He is reviewing the current laws in Montana to determine if it is appropriate to challenge the bans.
In an email that was sent out to members of the MSSA, Marbut made reference to a separate interview he did with another news reporter. Here’s what he said concerning that interview.
As an anecdotal aside, I was interviewed the same day by another reporter for another daily Montana paper. The reporter seemed to need education about RKBA [Right to Keep and Bear Arms] issues. At one point in delivering this education, I offered the observation that most gun control advocates are irrational. The reporter stopped me and challenged me to justify that comment. Since we were talking about guns on campus, I responded this way to the reporter’s challenge:
Suppose a madman determines to commit a Virginia Tech-style massacre on the Montana State University campus. Gun control advocates believe that this madman, who has already decided to violate humanity’s most profound taboo against taking innocent life and all the laws associated with that, and who expects to die in the process (all mass murderers expect to die in the process) – gun control advocates believe this madman will somehow become aware of an unenforceable university policy against guns on campus and because of this existing policy the madman will abandon his plans for mayhem, mass murder and his own death simply out of respect for this policy. Such thinking, I told the reporter, is clearly irrational by anyone’s standard.
There was a period of silence. Then the reporter said “Thank you for the interview.” End of interview.
Tom Remington
