While the Montana Constitution gives the Board of Regents significant authority to “manage” the affairs of the U.-system, SB 143 clarifies that the BoR his given no power to amend the Montana Constitution, or deny citizens the rights they have reserved to themselves in the Constitution from government interference.
SB 143 restricts U.-system authority, but does allow certain specified regulation, such as no firearm discharge on campus unless in self defense, no firearms carried on campus that are not cased or holstered, and that dorm rooms containing firearms must be kept secure.
You can find the Bill Text, Current Status and general descriptions for this bill here: https://www.mtssa.org/?page_id=184
If you can get to Helena to support SB 143 in its public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, that would be great. Please see or review my coaching about how to best appear and present at a legislative public hearing at:
http://progunleaders.org/Legislative%20Process/hearing.html
If you can’t come to Helena to appear before the Committee, please send messages to Committee members. Again, you can send one message to all committee members at one time via the Online legislative message form at:
http://www.leg.mt.gov/css/Sessions/64th/legwebmessage.asp
Again, be BRIEF. Legislators are so very swamped with material to read (they speak of it as “drinking from a fire hose”) that they simply don’t have time to and won’t read a long message. One short paragraph would be good. Just saying “Please support SB 143” would be sufficient.
Thanks for supporting SB 143 and for supporting other MSSA bills. Your support IS IMPORTANT!!!
Best wishes,
Gary Marbut, President
Montana Shooting Sports Association
https://www.mtssa.org
Author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.MTPublish.com