Second Amendment Under Attack in Montana
by Tim Ravndal
In 2016 the City of Missoula, Montana adopted an ordinance under section 9-60 of the municipal code that calls the right to keep and bear arms into question. The bill’s primary sponsor is Ward 1 council member Bryan von Lossberg. The ordinance prohibits the exchange or sale of any weapon within the city limits without going through a complete background check on both the seller and the buyer.
A socialist-funded organization called “Moms Demand Action” put both financial and legal support behind the Missoula elected officials. The organization has been on the anti-gun movement for over 5 years and are funded by the likes of Michael Bloomberg and George Soros. They continue to engage in anti-gun movements including indoctrination programs in the public-school system.
Another organization that is supporting the violation of the people’s rights by providing funding and legal council is: “Every Town For Safety”.
After multiple meetings before the city council the elected officials moved forward in spite of multiple challenges to the constitutionality of the proposed ordinance. In other words, the city marched forward regardless of the Constitutional Provisions prohibiting the city from acting against the rights of the people.
The people of Montana continued to seek relief from the tyranny in Missoula and the Attorney General of Montana, Tim Fox, was asked to intervene on behalf of the people. Mr. Fox in early 2017 issued a legal opinion that voided the ordinance.
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Back in February of this year, a couple hundred students from the Missoula area schools joined the national school walk out against guns. Using talking points bought by the anti-gun extremists, the students were scripted to chant; “Hey, NRA, how many kids did you kill today?”
In April of this year, in the Missoula County District Court before Judge Robert “Dusty” Deschamps, the city of Missoula filed a lawsuit on behalf of the city against the people of Montana. City Attorney Jim Nugent, determined that Montana law grants local governments the power to adopt background checks in order to keep “convicted felons, adjudicated mental incompetents and illegal aliens” from acquiring a gun. Attorney General Tim Fox is asking the judge to throw out the lawsuit. Mr. Nugent reads the part of Montana Statute that fits the agenda while leaving out the rest of the law.
The national organizations against the Second Amendment are providing the elected officials of Missoula a pro bono attorney. When the lawsuit was announced, Missoula Mayor John Engen said he was not aware of any legal precedent for a city challenging an attorney general’s opinion. The city has hired Missoula law firm Boone Karlberg, although has capped the expenses for the firm at $25,000.
Earlier this summer officials with Missoula County stepped into the battle and stopped the scheduled opening of the annual gun show held at the County Fairgrounds. They cited the fact that the Missoula County Fairgrounds are on or near school property. Because school was still in session, the officials of the county demanded that the show not open until 3:00PM when school would not be in session. So…the officials wanted to make sure that the students at the nearby school would be able to attend the gun show when it opened. The County officials eventually agreed to allow the show to open at 1:00PM as scheduled but demanded that no weapons be sold till after 3:00PM.
This past weekend Gun show organizer Hayes Otoupalik organized the annual gun show held at the University of Montana Adams Field house. Hayes is a longtime warrior on defending our rights and has been organizing gun shows for over 50 years. He is a weapons collector and historian from Missoula.
Joanna Dawson, having been involved in the gun shows for over 20 years here in Montana, shares her story where she got married at a gun show and her Dad was offered 6 shotguns to perform the ceremony. The second amendment family is a very tight group that stand united in the face of tyranny.
Everyone can see the insanity that is at play here. This story has nothing to do with Gun Safety, but rather gun control. We are awaiting court scheduling to be made available to remain at the table on behalf of the people. Stay tuned for further developments.