Tagged: guns in schools

Posted: February 12, 2013 at 5:03 pm

Representative Confuses Crime with Clay Pigeons

by Lash

2012 was a solid year for the North American Logic Shark. They got to rest from the stunt jumping the 2011 Legislature put them through, but as they say, there’s no rest for the delirious. Our logic shark sighting today comes from the House Judiciary Committee as they made a daring attempt at jumping yet another one (surprised face goes here).

Our daredevil o’the day is Rep Cary Smith, R-Billings, whose bill, HB 240, which seeks to allow guns on college campuses.

But wait, I hear you say, can’t you already carry guns on college campus in Montana? Well, in the strictest interpretation of your question – no, you can’t just carry them around everywhere on campuses. But in the real world, sensible spirit of your question – yeah, yeah you can. Continue reading →

Posted: January 3, 2013 at 4:45 am

2013 Legislative Preview

As the 2013 legislature arrives, here are some bills that I’m told are already being drafted by certain legislators. Some I like, some not. You be the judge. (For those new to the Cowgirl Blog, referring to the 2011 Nutjob Bills may provide some context).

1. Joint Resolution of the House and Senate, acknowledging the earth is significantly greater than 6,000 years old.

2. Joint Resolution, declaring global warming to be bad.

3. Bill requiring all political funding sources to be disclosed, for all groups and candidates, period.

4. Bill requiring mandatory counseling prior to divorce, for candidates running in a GOP gubernatorial primary.

5. Bill forbidding any GOP legislator who votes to take health care from others from benefitting in any way from any aspect of taxpayer funded health care.

6. State income tax increase for large corporations and Montana’s making more than $250,000.

7. Bill to remove carbon monoxide detector in the Governor’s office.

8. Bill to require legislators opposed to medical marijuana to take a lie detector test, about whether they’ve ever smoked it, and how much they smoked.

9. Bill to require a posting, in Capitol Rotunda, of all federal farm subsidy payments to legislators. (Did you know they are mostly TEA Partiers?)

10. Bill to require school children to carry hand-thrown spears and guns with silencers.

11. Constitutional amendment limiting the number of legislative referenda to three per election with citizen-authorized measures with greatest number of signatures taking priority; and raising the vote threshold needed for the legislature to send a measure directly to the ballot, to supermajority.

12. Bill requiring security checkpoints at all public bathrooms, to inspect all transgender Montanans.

13. Bill to establish dog kennel on Capitol grounds, to perpetuate dog-friendly state government.

14. Constitutional Amendment to require use of branding iron by Governor when vetoing.

15. Bill to allow fishing with silencers (and semiautomatics).

16. Bill to allow legislators to be paid in gold dust, pixie stix, or cattle.

Posted: December 31, 2012 at 7:36 pm

Divorced from Reality

When the Daily Inter Lake asked Rep. Jerry O’Neil yesterday about the Newtown school shooting tragedy, the Columbia Falls Republican responded with his concerns about divorce.

O’Neil noted that Connecticut gunman Adam Lanza, 20, was from a divorced home. Lanza apparently got the weapons he used from his mother, who enjoyed shooting sports. He shot her to death in her bed and then went to the school.

O’Neil claimed his divorce law would keep more families together, but it never passed.

Rep O’Neil believes that it is too easy for women to get a divorce in Montana. He was a big supporter of House Bill 438 which has been repeatedly voted down by his own colleagues. Under the proposed law, women would be required to remain married to drug addicts, those who gamble away the family’s life savings, drug dealers, criminals, and just plain bad people–until they had undergone eight weeks mandatory counseling.

To be sure, Rep. O’Neil believes divorce isn’t the only cause of school shootings in America. He believes they are caused by too few, rather than too many, guns in schools. He supports legislation to turn teachers into armed soldiers.

But O’Neil doesn’t stop there. The Montana Republican told the birther website World Net Daily today that he is pushing for two new amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The amendments would make it more difficult for the federal government to regulate firearms and to sign international arms treaties.

O’Neil is concerned about “the growing power of international treaties” and wants to amend the U.S. Constitution to prevent international treaties from being “used to override the U.S. Constitution”–and its second amendment. O’Neil says his other proposal “gives the states the right to make whatever guns they want so long as [firearms] stay inside the[sic] own borders.”

Posted: December 19, 2012 at 9:19 pm

MT Republican Legislator Wants More Guns in Schools

Rep. David Howard (R-Park City) believes that school shootings in America are caused by too few, rather than too many, guns in school. He wants to know why the sign on the right isn’t posted in front of ever school in America.

On his Facebook page, Howard explains his views on gun free schools:

This is like zebra’s declaring a section of the Serengeti to be a Lion free zone! They would go out and mark the boundaries, lie down and relax. The lions on the other hand, would be rejoicing and putting out signs that would say “Defenseless Stupid Zebra’s Ahead”.

The godless liberals are forcing America’s kids to be sitting ducks. Sad!

Howard is backing a piece of legislation, along with other Montana Republicans, that would allow students and teachers to bring side arms to school. This is one of several measures that the GOP believes will make for a safer society. The other is a bill to allow concealed weapons in bars, banks, schools and state government buildings. These were vetoed by Schweitzer last session, and will likely be vetoed again.

What Howard and company cannot come to terms with is this basic fact: that in places like Sweden, Finland, Canada, Germany, England and many other strong democracies, there is plenty of hunting and gun ownership, but virtually no school shootings and in fact barely any gun violence at all. And no, they don’t accomplish it by arming elementary school students. They do it through common sense regulation. No assault weapons, no gun show loopholes where you can pay cash for a gun without any record of the transaction. No 100-round clips of ammo.

The fun part of the upcoming legislative session will be to observe the diminished power that Gary Marbut will wield. Marbut runs an outfit called Montana Shooting Sports Association, a group he formed to compete with the NRA which he views as too liberal an organization. He wants guns everywhere, and is the force behind bills like the ones that Howard is pushing. But it’s crazy stuff that even Montanans, who are gun purists, don’t really go in for.

Rep. Howard is the Chair of the House Human Services Committee of the Montana Legislature.

Here’s a screenshot of Rep. Howard’s post:

Posted: February 17, 2011 at 7:04 am

Nutjob Bills in the Montana Legislature

For your reading pleasure, here are some of the major pieces of legislation that have been put forward by the Tea Party Republicans who are now in control of the legislature. This is not a joke. These are real bills, and they are currently taking priority in the Montana legislature. Enjoy.

Welcome to the land of nutters, the Montana Legislature.

1. Legalize hunting with hand-thrown spear (Senate Bill 112)

2. Create fully-armed militia in every town (House Bill 278)

3. Allow legislators to carry weapons in the Capitol (Senate Bill 279)

4. Create an 11 person panel with authority to nullify all federal laws (House Bill 382)

5 Allow guns in schools (House Bill 558)

6. Eliminate educational requirements for persons seeking job of State Superintendent of Schools (HB 154)

7. Lift nuclear ban for purpose of building a nuclear reactor in the Flathead Valley (House Bill 326)

8. Withdraw the United States of America from the United Nations (Senate Joint Resolution 2)

9. Eliminate all state incentives for developing wind power (House Bill 244)

10. Omit Barack Obama’s name from the 2012, ballot because his father was born outside of America (House Bill 205)(this guy was on CNN this week)

11. Compulsory marriage counseling for people seeking a divorce (House Bill 438)

12. Give sheriffs authority over the federal government in terror investigations (Senate Bill 114)

13. Legalize hunting with silencers (House Bill 174)

14. Lift the prohibition on carrying concealed weapons in bars, churches and banks (House Bill 384)

15. Eliminate law that requires landlords to install carbon monoxide detectors (House Bill 354)

16. Require the federal government to prove in court that the National Parks were lawfully aquired. (House Bill 506)

17. Officially designate the “Code of the West” as the “Code of Montana” (Senate Bill 216)

UPDATE: 18. Declare that global warming is good. (House Bill 549)

h/t RastaMon for this photo.