Email fwd from Montana shooting sports Assn.:

Dear MSSA Friends,

Thought this might interest you.

Gary

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March 13, 2001

Steve Woodruff, Editorial Page Editor
Missoulian
P.O. Box 8029
Missoula, Montana 59807

Dear Steve,

A Sunday Missoulian letter writer asks the somewhat skewed question of why
gun owners love firearms.  The Missoulian editorial takes an admirable stab
at answering that question, but falls a bit short.  Let me add three points.

Before the Civil War, the U.S. Supreme Court wrote an opinion in Sanford v.
Scott.  The court was required to determine if Dred Scott, a slave
petitioning for his freedom in a state that didn't allow slavery, was
legally a slave or a free man.  Considering the status of Scott, the court
enunciated one historic truth that an easily identifiable difference
between a slave and a free man is that a slave is never allowed to possess
arms, and a free man may not be debarred possessing arms.  Thus, possessing
arms is in all times a badge of freedom, and the antithesis of slavery.

Also, it has been demonstrated by all contemporary and significant studies
that in states where there is a high incidence of gun ownership by law
abiding adults, and where the state has liberal concealed weapon permit
laws, the people of the state (e.g., Montana) suffer under a dramatically
reduced level of violent, interpersonal crimes such as murder, rape and
robbery.  Further, everyone benefits from this reduced victimization, even
non-gun owners, when law abiding and competent people are armed.

Last, Col Jeff Cooper, in "The Art of the Rifle", says, "It is a tool of
power, and thus dependent completely on the moral stature of its user.  It
is equally useful in securing meat for the table, destroying group enemies
on the battlefield, and resisting tyranny.  In fact, it is the only means
of resisting tyranny, because a citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot
be tyrannized."

Most Montana people understand these principles intuitively, and don't need
to ask "Why do you love your guns?"

Sincerely,

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
P.O. Box 4924
Missoula, Montana 59806

cont. in part II

Sounds like a great place to live.

Wish I could say it that well. Great stuff.