Montana: Senator Tester Refuses to Commit to Protecting Your Gun Rights

Montana Senator Jon Tester img tester.senate.gov
Montana Senator Jon Tester img tester.senate.gov

Montana – -(AmmoLand.com)- I have received no direct response from Senator Tester about any one of the series of letters I sent to him explaining the Montana take on gun control likely to come before the U.S. Senate.

I did receive a form email that a lot of you may have also received, wherein Tester was carefully unclear about his position concerning Universal Background Checks (UBC).

UBCs, you may know, are a strategy to sweep private transfers of firearms into a national gun registration scheme by requiring that private transfers must have a federal background check to record the transaction. (If you believe it when they claim every transaction involving a background check is not recorded, I have some lovely beachfront property to sell you just outside of Malta, Montana.)

I was visiting with my friend John about Tester’s weak and flexible statement about UBCs. John asked if that statement should be interpreted as for UBCs or against UBCs. I told John I would compose a careful response to that question and email it to him. I thought you might be interested in my comment to John.

Gary


John,

I have been thinking about Senator Tester’s email in which he is unclear about his position on Universal Background Check legislation heading towards the Senate. Three things come to mind:

  1. Tester claims to support the Second Amendment. Heck, EVERY politician claims that, no matter how anti-gun they are. That claim has become so trite, abused, and worthless that the claim may be entirely disregarded. It means nothing anymore.
  2. Tester’s posture needs to be taken in Montana political context. A UBC was attempted in Montana (the Missoula SNAFU). That effort was successfully opposed by an Attorney General’s Opinion, a Montana Supreme Court decision (Missoula v. Fox), a bill before the Legislature (HB 357), and a ballot issue that the people approved (LR-130). Add to that political climate HB 102 and HB 258 that were passed by the recent session of the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Gianforte.  Against this current political background in Montana, Tester’s tepid comment about a UBC is so far estranged from the political realities in Montana that it is tantamount to an open declaration in favor of a UBC. To be anything like consistent with the current political intolerance for gun control in Montana, any statement from Tester about a UBC should be ringing opposition, not the squishy language he uses that could be interpreted any way the reader wishes.
  3. I have made five separate attempts to reach out to Senator Tester both to convey what I understand to be broad sentiment in Montana about the gun control issues likely to come before him in D.C., and to initiate some dialog with Jon about these issues. I’d hoped he would be willing to engage in such a dialog. Jon and I know each other. We worked together when he was in the Montana Senate. He actually carried a bill for us then, one to require that DFWP publish their game counting methodology and results. Jon knows that I am the leader of the organization that is the primary political advocate for gun owners in Montana – that I speak for a lot of concerned Montana gun owners.

However, as a U.S. Senator, Tester has declined to respond to any of my letters to him. It appears that he wants to avoid any serious discussion about gun control with Montana.

That Tester has elected to avoid any such dialog, is not willing to even discuss it, does not argue for his openness on this issue. That, in turn, does not generate much confidence in the hope that he will actively oppose gun control in the Senate.

FYI, my series of letters to Tester, to which he has declined to respond, may be viewed at: progunleaders.org/Tester_Letters/

I assume that Tester is under heavy pressure by Senator Schumer and many others to go along with the gun control agenda. I assume he is also concerned about what Montana voters may think about that gun control agenda and how his votes may influence his reelection chances. I also assume that those in D.C. who want his vote for gun control have promised boatloads of money for his reelection campaign to overcome any animosity created among voters by his possible swing vote for gun control (ala Baucus, 1994). These conflicting pressures must surely dictate the nature of his tepid and flexible comments about the UBC headed to the Senate.

The right thing for Tester to do would be to clearly represent the recently demonstrated will of the people of Montana on the subject of gun control – vigorously oppose and be clear about that. However, there is also the seductive siren song of party, power, and money that Schumer and others are singing in his ears. I guess we’ll see how that works out.

Best wishes,

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

 


About Montana Shooting Sports Association:

Montana Shooting Sports Association is the primary political advocate for Montana gun owners. Visit: www.mtssa.org

Montana Shooting Sports Association

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Montana454Casull

We the people of Montana are going to dump fat ass Testor next election . John just wore his welcome out in Montana as our Senator. Go to hell fat ass your going to be replaced next election with a conservative that supports Montana’s gun rights ! You need a diet you fat pig and ypu are going to be cut off from the government tax payer funded gravy train .

MSG L

jon tester, (d), Montana, you are supposed to REPRESENT us not pelosi and schumer. We support the US Constitution and the Second Amendment, now represent US.

Lark Chadwick

Contact Senator Jon Tester
311 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
202-224-2644

nrringlee

Press the issue. You have to make the case to all of the Kalifornians who now vote in Montana that liberty is a fragile thing and the Progressive New Left operating under the guise of the democrat party is the enemy of all that makes Montana a great place to live and work. Tester is a typical snake in the grass. He dodges the hard questions.And for the most part Country Club Republicans fail even ask the hard questions. That is exaclty why we have Cosmonaut Mark Kelly in the Senate until 2022. He ran on a platform of Gabby… Read more »

Lark Chadwick

Contact Senator Jon Tester
311 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
202-224-2644

Green Mtn. Boy

Montana can do better,Dump the Chump.

PriklyPete

Tester is a lying SOB that does not represent the people of Montana and should be treated like the treasonous, traitor bastard he has become, duck walked out to the nearest hanging tree and hung by the neck until death due us part!

Knute

“there is also the.. siren song of… power and money”
I’ll lay anyone 5 to 1 odds that money and power will win out. Tester sold us all down the river years ago, just as Max Baucus did!

Mystic Wolf

This tester guy is nothing more than a rattlesnake! There are two ways to deal with a snake like that you either kill it or contain it, to contain a snake like him you put it in a glass prison cell for which there is no getting out. Traitors to the people need to be dealt with in a most expedient manor, put them in a glass box and flood it with fluorine gas then fill it with nitric acid or one of those. These politicians need to be taught that it was the people that put them there and… Read more »

ras52

Will, 10 4 to that!

OlTrailDog

We finally dumped that worthless gov. Bullock last election. Hopefully the feckless Tester is out next time around. In spite of the abundant fraud in the 2020 election, including that which took place in Missoula, don’t let the trickster con you into not voting.

Lark Chadwick

Questionable elections, particularly in Missoula and on reservations are not new.

Tom Horn

Someone needs to remind him the democrats promised millions, MILLIONS to the candidates they ran in Texas this past election in an effort to turn Texas blue. Millions of dollars didn’t help them one bit. Money doesn’t always win when the people are smart enough to see through it.

Lark Chadwick

Jon Tester is not for Montana, though when electioneering he claims to support 2A and Veterans his actual performance is dismal – his selection to US Senate reeks of Democrat machine corruption – his voting record of 28% on the Freedom Index reflects his contempt of our US Constitution. Jon is a cog in the greater democrat political machine that pushes massive gun control on American people. It would be a miracle for Jon to independently speak up in support of our 2nd Amendment Rights. Contact Jon Tester 311 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
202-224-2644

Henry Bowman

I can smell that RINO from where I am, several states away…

Lark Chadwick

Jon Tester is a democrat