photo courtesy of Gary Marbut
Marbut
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After the massacre of 49 people and the wounding of dozens of others at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida this weekend, the cry immediately began again from pundits and politicians to restrict the ownership of certain types of firearms. 

KGVO News spoke to the man who has authored many of Montana's gun laws, and has even published a book on the subject, Gary Marbut, President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, and asked about the most recent demands for new gun laws.

"The talking mouths always want to punish all the people who didn't do it," Marbut said. "The truth is, this happened in one of those very dangerous 'gun-free zones', where only the victims are disarmed and the perpetrators are never disarmed. This was perpetrated by a Muslim, using firearms that he had purchased through the background checks that all the 'anti's' are clamoring for. All the hue and cry is nonsensical, but totally predictable."

Marbut said there are innumerable laws already on the books to adequately prevent such attacks from taking place.

"Let's start with the basics," he said. "It's illegal to kill people, so what more do you need? It doesn't matter if you use a bomb or a knife, it's already illegal to kill people, It's spinning out of control, so I don't listen to it because it's all so nonsensical, as it always is."

Marbut said the term 'assault rifle' actually refers to a weapon towed behind a vehicle to breach fortified positions.

"They've stolen that term, and applied it to common everyday rifles or what we sometimes call sporting rifles or homeland defense rifles," he said. "They do this in order to demonize them and make them sound as if they have behavior. They pick firearms that have a certain feature like a carrying handle or because the're black in color and call them the mean, evil name of 'assault rifles' in order to persuade the uninformed that there's something inherently bad in them."

Marbut said he encourages all gun owners to be familiar with state and federal laws regarding firearms, and to abide by them.

"Every state has its own laws, and of course we encourage all gun owners to be familiar with all the laws because, after all, we are law-abiding citizens and we want to comply with the laws," he said. "I've actually written the book about that in Montana, called 'Gun Laws of Montana', and it's available at this website. People can go there and order my book and learn all about Montana gun laws."

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