Another one from MSSA:

HB 631 is MSSA’s bill to allow recovery of court costs and attorney fees for someone who must sue a government entity to enforce the person’s Right to Keep or Bear Arms.  That bill has passed the House, was transmitted to the Senate, has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and is awaiting its public hearing there.

Here’s the link to the bill so you can read it yourself: https://leg.mt.gov/bills/2023/BillHtml/HB0631.htm

There are a lot of local governments in Montana, while they are pre-empted from enacting restrictions on our gun rights, go ahead and do it anyway. They figure no one is going to sue them over it because of the expense in bringing a case. You can send them letters informing them of their violations and threaten to sue, but they’re confident enough that they’ll just ignore you and say “Bring it.”

There are some interesting parts in this bill. First up, standing:

Section 3 (2) A person whose right to bear arms has been burdened by the state, or is likely to be burdened by the state, in violation of subsection (1) may assert the violation or impending violation as a claim or defense against the state in a judicial proceeding

You don’t have to risk fines or incarceration to have standing. You just need to show that your right is likely to be burdened. Localities figure they can get away with their illegal bans because who wants to spend time in jail on a gun charge just to prove a point?

Also, the word “burden” is defined:

  “Burden” means to directly or indirectly constrain, inhibit, curtail, or deny a person’s right to bear arms or to compel any action contrary to a person’s right to bear arms. The term includes but is not limited to withholding benefits, excluding the person from government programs, and assessing criminal, civil, or administrative penalties.

That’s super broad and should cover almost anything a petty tyrant can come up with.

The members of the Senate Judiciary committee are:

Regier, Keith (R) ‑ Chair
Usher, Barry (R) ‑ Vice Chair
Gross, Jen (D) ‑ Vice Chair
Brown, Bob (R)
Emrich, Daniel (R)
Friedel, Chris (R)
Hinebauch, Steve (R)
Kelker, Kathy (D)
Manzella, Theresa (R)
Olsen, Andrea (D)
Webber, Susan (D)
Secretary: Grace Gibney, Rm 65, 444-4889
Staff: Julianne Burkhardt, Rm 126, 444-4025

You can contact them via https://leg.mt.gov/web-messaging .

Once this legislation is passed, we anticipate a number of legal proceedings to begin in order to rectify the issues that have plagued us for years.