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[Basil Fishbone]

Gun culture story, Washington Post
 From: Gary Marbut-MSSA <mssa@mtssa.org>
 To: mssa@mtssa.org
 
Dear MSSA Friends,

Freddie Kunkle, a reporter with the Washington
Post, called me several months ago with questions
about our gun culture in the West.  Freddie ended
up coming to Montana to research the story, which
appeared today in the Washington Post.

Here is what Stephen Wenger reported about the
story, with a link to the actual story:

Culture Conflict – DC vs. the West: …This is the
gun culture of the American West, and it is from
here that the latest challenge to the District's
firearms laws has come. Sen. John McCain
(R-Ariz.) and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) have
proposed a law that they say would sweep away
overly stringent regulations imposed by the D.C.
Council after the Supreme Court struck down the
city's 32-year ban on handguns… Council member
Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) said the
McCain-Tester bill could gut the District's
regulatory powers, including laws that are
stricter than most states about keeping guns away
from people with records of domestic violence. He
also said the law shows a disregard for the
realities of the District, where guns mean
drive-bys, holdups and intimidation more than
sport, tradition and the American way… Just down
the road from the Ben Avery range is the Zip code
with the most federal firearms licensees in
Arizona (20), including McMillan Firearms
Manufacturing, a family firm that makes precision
rifles and synthetic rifle stocks used by
big-game hunters and military snipers. Kerry D.
McMillan, 55, whose father created the company,
sounds puzzled about why places such as the
District impose so many restrictions on an
adult's access to firearms. Criminals don't obey
the law anyway, he says… (This is a four-page
article that spends a fair amount of space on
match activity in Arizona and Montana.)

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/17/AR2010081705427.html?hpid=topnews>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/17/AR2010081705427.html?hpid=topnews

The Missoula Independent even covered the Washington Post story, at:
http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/IndyBlog/archives/2010/08/18/the-truth-about-gun-toting-soccer-moms-in-montana

BTW, I've done several other interviews for
national media in the past few months, including
an extensive one for Newsweek.  I spent a lot of
time with the lady from Newsweek trying to
explain the depth and breadth of our gun culture
in Montana.  I felt I was getting through, but
you never know until you see the story in print.

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