Wait a minute. We're supposed to let a guy a who doesn't even know how to shoot bear spray lecture us about the 2nd Amendment?

In case you missed it, Gov. Steve Bullock announced his support for an "assault weapon" ban on CNN's State of the Union with Jake Tapper on Sunday. After spending the 2012 and 2016 campaigns assuring Montanans that he supports their gun rights, now that he doesn't have to face Montana voters for re-election Bullock is flip-flopping on the 2nd Amendment.

Here's the video from CNN:


This marks a stark change from Bullock's re-election campaign for governor in 2016, when his campaign released a statement responding to an attack from his Republican opponent, Greg Gianforte. The statement said, "Steve Bullock supports Montana's current laws when it comes to gun rights. He opposes universal background checks, he has expanded gun rights as governor and he will always stand up for the Second Amendment."

Montanans may recall that former Democrat Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) voted in support of an assault weapons ban back in 1994, only to reverse his stance years later due to opposition from Montana voters. As AWR Hawkins points out, the idea of banning so-called "assault weapons" this day in age is even more radical:

In a “White Paper” published last year by the Washington Post, ATF Associate Deputy Director Ronald Turk actually argued that the ATF should rethink its categorization of “assault weapons” because numerous weapons still be categorized that way are widely used in hunting sports.

Turk wrote, “Since the sunset of the Assault Weapons ban in 2004, the use of AR-15s, AK-style, and similar rifles now commonly referred to as ‘modern sporting rifles’  has increased exponentially in sport shooting. These firearm types are now standard for hunting activities.”

 

For those who wondered if Bullock was simply using his presidential pipe dream to raise money for a possible US Senate run against Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), I think we can permanently shelve that idea:


Mike over at The Western Word added this:

When I heard the comments, my first thought was that Bullock must have decided to never run for statewide office in Montana again.

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