Dear MSSA Friends,

Great news.  SB 122 has become law because Governor Bullock has taken no action on SB 122, MSSA’s flagship for the 2015 session bill to encourage the manufacture of smokeless powder, small arms primers, and cartridge brass in Montana.  (If the Governor takes no action on a bill within 10 days of receiving it, it becomes law as if he had signed it.)  Now we need to spread the word that Montana is open for business in these manufacturing endeavors.

With the Legislature now adjourned, it’s now time to announce MSSA’s next goals:

1.  Build membership.  Any of you who are not yet MSSA members SHOULD JOIN!!!  Since you followed MSSA activities through the legislative session, you know we are working for you, to make good Montana gun laws even better.  MSSA has now gotten 64 pro-gun bills through the Montana Legislature and signed into law.  MSSA is the best at this in the US, therefore arguably in the World. WE NEED YOUR MEMBERSHIP SUPPORT!  If you are not yet an MSSA member, you can download the membership application form HERE.

If you are already an MSSA member, RECRUIT OTHERS.  Print out copies of the membership form linked above, and get your friends to join MSSA.  We do more for gun owners in Montana than any other state or national organization.  MSSA has a great membership recruitment brochure.  If you want copies of that, just send MSSA your mail address and say how many brochures you want.

2.  Raise funds for political action.  In the spring of 2016, MSSA will need to spend a lot of money to elect good candidates for the 2017 legislative session.  We need to start fundraising for that NOW. MSSA has a separate political committee for political spending (so we can protect our membership list).  This is called the MSSA-PC.  MSSA-PC can accept any size donations.  The largest single donations we’ve ever had was about $10,000.  But, we’d be glad to have $20, or $50, or more.  Just send a check payable to MSSA-PC to MSSA at P.O. Box 4924, Missoula, Montana 59808.

If you want to put on a match or a fundraising event for MSSA, great!

Please note that former NYC mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s group Everytown outspent MSSA by 5:1 in lobbying the 2015 legislative session.  He’s clearly decided to play in Montana politics.  We can’t let Bloomberg dominate the next election cycle.  Dig deep!

For any individual donation of $250 or more to MSSA-PC, we are required to report to the Federal Elections Commission the name, address, occupation and employer of the donor, so please provide that information with any donation of $250 or more.  Thanks loads!!!

3.  Recruit and groom candidates for the Legislature.  It’s time for a confession about strategy.  People asked me why MSSA was running so many bills in the 2015 legislative session that we knew the Governor would veto if they got to his desk (as he did for some).  The answer is, to develop a killer voting record on legislators who need to be replaced, especially Republicans who voted with Democrats to kill MSSA bills.  Soon and in a separate email, I will be sending out information about in what legislative districts we need to be recruiting and grooming candidates to run for the seats to replace legislators who effectively killed MSSA bills in the 2015 session.  Stay tuned for that because I will depend on you to help MSSA locate suitable candidates.

As the information becomes available, I will also be sending out information about acceptable candidates to replace Governor Bullock, so all MSSA bills won’t be vetoed for the next four years.

That’s all for now.  Join, donate to MSSA-PC, and stand by for the launch of MSSA’s candidate recruitment effort.

Best wishes,

Gary Marbut, President
Montana Shooting Sports Association
https://www.mtssa.org
Author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.MTPublish.com

By mssa