Ryan Busse says he helped build an iconic firearms company. Busse was the Vice President of Sales for Kimber America for 25 years until 2020 and he uses those bona fides to bolster his argument opposing a bill currently under consideration in the Montana legislature that would make it the seventeenth constitutional carry state in the nation.
The Missoulian published a column by Busse yesterday in which he states his case against un-permitted concealed carry in Big Sky Country. After the requisite paragraphs establishing his gun-owning credentials, Busse wrote this:
Montana boasts of a wonderful common sense and deep down all of us know that protecting our rights also means avoiding extremist policies that only increase the likelihood of bloodshed. Montana House Bill 102 will not make us safer. It is not a pro-gun bill. It is an anti-responsibility bill.
Busse seems to be blissfully unaware that constitutional carry hasn’t made the kind of “gun tragedies” he says he fears any more likely in the sixteen states that currently have constitutional carry in place.
More from The Missoulian:
Like so many Montanans, I grew up with a rifle in one hand and a shotgun in the other.
I converted my love of shooting into a 25-year career in the firearms industry. I helped build an iconic international gun company. I sold millions of guns. I’ve won awards, even been a finalist for the “Firearms Industry Person of the Year,” which is the industry’s highest honor. It’s an award that has also been bestowed on firearms royalty like Charlton Heston and Bill Ruger.
Mr. Busse certainly has better firearm-owning credentials than dedicated gun rights opponents like, say, John Kerry and Joe Biden. He also cites an incident in which his son was supposedly attacked recently by “Second Amendment patriots.”
Opinion: This spring my young son was attacked in Kalispell by armed “Second Amendment patriots” at a local peaceful demonstration. https://t.co/UwV9G4wOx5
— Missoulian (@missoulian) January 26, 2021
Unlike people such as Kerry and Biden, though, it isn’t taxpayers who have provided for Mr. Busse and his family over these past 25 years, it’s gun owners. That’s a group who Busse doesn’t believe is responsible enough to be trusted with the unsupervised, unpermitted use of their Second Amendment rights.
If enacted, people without any permit could carry concealed guns into bars and college campuses across our state. …
Montana House Bill 102 will not make us safer. It is not a pro-gun bill. It is an anti-responsibility bill.
I believe strongly in the Second Amendment, I own plenty of guns, I shoot with my boys every chance I get and I believe in the right to protect my family. But I also believe in responsibility, safety, training and common sense. This bill is the equivalent of waving flames over open gasoline; the sort of action every ranch kid like me knows is reckless.
Permitless concealed carry, guns on college campuses and in bars? These are policies that make gun tragedy more likely and there is nothing patriotic about that.
Gun owners have seen a few other high-profile industry folk articulate their support for limits on Americans’ gun rights in the past. Typically that doesn’t go well for them.
Jim Zumbo used to be a prolific and widely-read gun industry personality. That is, until he defamed America’s favorite rifle as a “terrorist” rifle on his blog:
“I must be living in a vacuum,” he wrote. “The guides on our hunt tell me that the use of AR (-15) and AK (-47) rifles have a rapidly growing following among hunters, especially prairie dog hunters. I had no clue. Only once in my life have I ever seen anyone using one of these firearms.
“I call them ‘assault’ rifles, which may upset some people. Excuse me, maybe I’m a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity. I’ll go so far as to call them ‘terrorist’ rifles. To most of the public, an assault rifle is a terrifying thing. Let’s divorce ourselves from them. I say game departments should ban them from the prairies and woods.”
Zumbo’s fall came swiftly after that was published and he even earned himself a spot in the Urban Dictionary:
zumboed
When outdoor writer Jim Zumbo wrote a piece on his weblog that was derogatory towards semi-automatic rifles used in the context of varmint hunting a grass roots tidal wave of protest caused him to loose (sic) all of his lucrative deals with Outdoor Life, Remington, Cabellas, etc within 48 hours of his post.
Zumbo got lumped into the “Fudd” camp, shooters that do not understand or truly support the 2nd Amendment and believe that it somehow has something to do with hunting.
Wow, you sure got “zumboed”!
Careful now, you don’t want to get “zumboed” do you?
You had better get educated on the subject before you get “zumboed”.
Your ignorance is sure to get you “zumboed”.
A few years later, Dick Metcalf, a Guns & Ammo editor from the Land of Lincoln, wrote of his support for gun control laws.
Scan from Guns & Ammo by Boch.
That promptly cost him his long-time gigs.
It doesn’t seem likely that “busse” will become a new verb in the Urban Dictionary (or any other). There are already perfectly serviceable terms there that accurately describe Mr. Busse and those who share his attitude toward Americans’ gun rights. But it’s still instructive to know how some within the firearms community view gun owners and their Second Amendment freedoms.