http://youtu.be/08_tmYx5ZEE?t=23m12s

In a surprise to many, Montana Shooting Sports Association President Gary Marbut, the drafter of Montana’s versions a host of gun laws, has come out in support of the guilty verdict in the deliberate homicide trial of Markus Kaarma. Marbut said the use of deadly force needed to be qualified by three important factors about the threat Kaarma was facing, but that those factors were tough to come by in the low light of Kaarma’s garage.

"If Kaarma could not have visualized his alleged assailant, how could he have qualified that his assailant had opportunity, ability, or intent?" Marbut said. "How could he have determined that all three of those were imminent? I think the jury figured that out."

Marbut went on to say that the Kaarma trial actually shows the appropriateness of Montana’s gun laws.

"I think that the Kaarma trial demonstrates that Montana gun laws work and they work like they're supposed to," Marbut said. "We've had an appropriate outcome from this whole thing. I also want to say that I think everybody knows there were no winners here. There were no winners in the incident, there were no winners in the trial, everybody lost something. That's what I tell my students: If there is a tactically viable way to not use lethal force, it's always better to not use it, than to use it."

More gun laws by Marbut will be discussed in the 2015 legislative session. State Representative Ellie Hill has discussed bills that would change Montana’s versions of the Stand Your Ground and Castle Doctrine laws.

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