March 2, 2017

Montana Republican State Committee
Helena, Montana

Dear Committee Member,

The Montana Shooting Sports Association is the primary political advocate for Montana gun owners.  We watch politics closely in Montana.  In the last 30 years MSSA has gotten 67 pro-gun bills through the Montana Legislature and enacted into law (we’ve had a few more vetoed by various governors).

We wish to offer you our recommendation for a GOP candidate to fill the seat recently vacated by Congressman Zinke.

The good news is that there are a number of very good candidates to choose from.  The less helpful news is that we cannot recommend just one best candidate.  However, we can help you narrow the field by assuring you that there are four contenders who we believe would be very solid advocates for our cherished right to keep and bear arms – four known candidates, any of whom who would be great from our perspective.

Those four are, in alphabetical order:  Greg Gianforte, Carl Glimm, Ken Miller, and Ed Walker.

Glimm, Miller, and Walker have all served in the Legislature and all three of them have a 100% voting record on firearms issues over multiple sessions of vote records we keep.  Those 100% voting records are pure gold.  We know Gianforte well, know his personal commitment to the right to keep and bear arms, and have a great candidate questionnaire from him from his run for Governor.

So, we recommend all four of those candidates to you without reservation.

Other currently known contenders for this nomination either have less stellar or no records of legislative votes, have no candidate questionnaire on file with us, or are otherwise unknown to us.

We hope this is helpful to you in making this important selection.

Best wishes,
--   Gary Marbut, president  Montana Shooting Sports Association  https://www.mtssa.org  Author, Gun Laws of Montana  http://www.mtpublish.com

By mssa