Senator Max Baucus | gun control

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A domain dedicated to concern about possible gun control votes by Montana's senior US Senator Max Baucus.

U.S. - A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Montana - The right of any person to keep or bear arms in defense of his own home, person, and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall not be called in question, but nothing herein contained shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons.

NEWS FLASH – April 11, 2013 – Senator Baucus votes to proceed with debate on gun control:

Because there is much discussion among gun owners of Montana about proposals by Senator Feinstein and others for Congress to enact various types of gun control, I thought you would appreciate knowing what I hear from Montanans about this. I speak to you as a person intimately familiar with firearms, with public policy about firearms, as a person accepted in state and federal courts as an expert on firearms, firearms safety, and use of force, and as the president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, Montana's primary organization asserting the right to keep and bear arms, also affiliated or associated with the National Rifle Association, Gun Owners of America, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and the Second Amendment Foundation.

On behalf of the Montana Shooting Sports Association I wish to express our unequivocal opposition to any ban on any class or type of firearms, any new registration requirements on any class or types of firearms, any restrictions on manufacture, sale, or possession, of ammunition feeding devices of any configuration or capacity, and any government intrusion into firearm transfers between private citizens. Any congressional actions in any of these areas would be an infringement upon the rights the citizens of Montana have reserved to themselves.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article II, Section 12 of the Montana Constitution. These sections of these foundational documents are not government permission to keep firearms. They are statements whereby the people have reserved these rights to themselves specifically from government interference. These statements do not create any rights, but simply recognize preexisting “natural rights” which are restricted from government interference. As you consider whatever “gun control” (actually, people control) may be offered by Senator Feinstein or others, I hope you will keep these facts clearly in mind.

“Gun free zones” are a terrible failure of public policy. Virtually all mass shootings, including the one in Connecticut that has sparked the current wave of media hysteria, happen in places where public policy has incorrectly assured people that they are safe, but where the policy has actually created risk-free zones for madmen, and pools of defenseless victims conveniently offered up for slaughter by failed policy. Former police officer Ron Avery says, “The only way to check violence in progress, where the victim can neither hide nor flee, is by equal or greater force in a timely manner.“ If Congress feels compelled to “do something” in the wake of the Connecticut shooting, it should repeal the pretense of all federally-mandated or federally-inspired “gun free zones.”

For any inside the Beltway who actually believe in the effectiveness of “gun free zones,” I recommend that the White House, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, the U.S. Supreme Court and all federal courthouses be declared “gun free zones” and that all armed guards and protective personnel in those places be removed. If “gun free zones” are effective for our kids, they're good enough for our servants.

Various gun bans, licensing or registration schemes, and/or bans or restrictions of ammunition feeding devices will fail. I won't bother you with discussion of the fact that any such restrictions will have no effect on criminals or madmen. I believe you already know that. I do hope to inform you about how strongly the gun owners of Montana feel about their right to keep and bear arms. I have asked around among a considerable number of friends, acquaintances and contacts in Montana. I have not learned of anyone who would comply, for example, with a new federal law requiring them to register or surrender their semi-auto rifles to authorities. Let me be very clear: Montanans will not comply with any new federal restrictions. The most any such restrictions would do would be to create a huge, new, armed, outlaw class of citizens. And, I very much doubt that most Montana law enforcement personnel would cooperate in enforcing any such federal restrictions.

Clearly, the vast numbers of citizens who have bought new firearms in the past month, especially the hundreds of thousands of expensive semi-auto rifles, did not buy these new firearms simply so they'd have them available to surrender if Congress should pass a law demanding they do so.

Conclusion. Since Montana law enforcement personnel are unlikely to enforce any such restrictions, the effect of passage of such restrictions would ultimately be for federal officers to come to Montana to enforce them. Because most Montanans will simply not comply with any new federal restraints on a right they have reserved specifically from government interference, the obvious result would be armed conflict between Montanans and federal enforcers. (I offer this not as a threat or a challenge, but simply as an observation.)

I certainly hope you would not set Montana on the path to an armed conflict with federal enforcers by aiding or supporting passage of any new federal restrictions. That would not be in the best interest of your constituents.

Instead, if you feel compelled to pass some actually corrective legislation in response to the media hysteria over the Connecticut shooting, I highly recommend that you get rid of those dangerous and illusory “gun free zones.”

Note: The incoming email for this message included the letterhead for Senator Baucus, and a graphic signature at the bottom.

This letter is identical to the canned response the Baucus office has sent to many Montanans expressing concern about the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and potential federal infringements of that right.

January 16, 2013

Mr. Gary Marbut

Dear Gary:

Thank you for expressing your views with me regarding gun control. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

Like every other parent in America, my heart is broken by the tragic shooting in Connecticut. Mel and I continue to pray for the victims and their families. This and other recent tragedies have raised serious questions about the culture of violence in our society - questions that deserve careful reflection on everything from access to mental health care to the video games our children play.

Many folks have been contacting me with their concerns about various pieces of legislation that would hamper an individual's right to keep and bear arms. I support the constitutional rights of responsible, law-abiding gun owners, and enforcing the laws on the books to protect people from violence. As I reflect, I am listening carefully to my bosses in Montana, and it is clear that any national discussion on gun control must also take into account the values Montanans expect me to protect.

In the past, I have supported commonsense efforts to curb violence when those efforts have not infringed upon the rights of the American people to keep and bear arms. Some of the proposals that I've supported include putting more police on the streets through the "COPS" program, and increasing funding for after-school programs and youth counseling. We must be careful that efforts to prevent crime do not infringe upon the constitutional rights of sportsmen and women, and other law-abiding gun owners to purchase and use firearms.

Thanks again for getting in touch. I also encourage you to visit my website at http://www.baucus.senate.gov for current information on what I'm doing both here in Washington and at home to help Montana. Please contact me with any additional comments or concerns.

One correction from Gary: I didn't write Senator Baucus to express views “regarding gun control.” Rather, I wrote to express views regarding the Right to Keep and Bear Arms that the people have reserved to themselves from government interference in the Constitution.

"Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal." - Janet Reno U.S. Attorney General 1993-12-10

As we predicted, the interest by Congress to “do something” about new gun control is now resolving to “universal background checks,” an euphemism for universal gun owner registration.

In case you should have any question about it, MSSA is totally, unalterably opposed to ANY new gun control, especially including any system of actual or defacto “universal background checks.”

First, all available data demonstrates that criminals obtain their firearms almost exclusively by illegal means, so they would be unaffected by any background checks.

Second, if you don't understand the implication of what would effectively become universal gun and gun owner registration, please look at the publication Lethal Laws produced by the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. In Lethal Laws, JPFO documents that during the century of the 1900s there were between 160 million and 260 million human beings put to death by their own governments in genocides around the World.

In Lethal Laws, JPFO also documents that every one of the genocides of the 1900s was preceded by gun confiscation, so defenseless people could easily be rounded up and killed, and every case of widespread firearm confiscation was preceded by gun registration. Of course, governments told their citizens that the government was just trying to keep everyone safe.

Most Montana gun owners know of the JPFO research, and that genocide is always preceded by gun confiscation, which is always preceded by gun registration. That's why they take the gun registration inherent in “universal background checks” so very seriously.

I apologize if this seems like strong language, but I want to be frank and honest. Most Montana gun owners understand that a vote for “universal background checks” will actually be a vote to begin down the track that ended in genocide every time it was done in the 1900s.

For any Montana gun owners who don't already understand this connection, MSSA will surely inform them. There's just no way to sugar-coat this or say it more nicely – a vote for gun registration, even if euphemistically described as “universal background checks,” will be seen as putting necessary pieces into place for subsequent genocide.

So, we hope you will be staunch in your opposition to ANY new federal gun control proposed in Congress, but especially to “universal background checks.”.

Thank you for your comments about gun control. I appreciate you taking the time to get in touch.

Rest assured, I am always listening to the people of Montana, and I will keep your thoughts in mind as legislation regarding this issue is considered in the 113th Congress.

Please contact me in the future with your questions or comments on any issue of importance to you. I would encourage you to visit my website at http://www.baucus.senate.gov for more information on issues at home in Montana and across the nation. Thanks again for keeping in touch.