https:// ijr.com/2018/03/1078966-montana-march-guns-called-governing-individuals-not-weapons/
On Saturday, hundreds of Second Amendment activists gathered in Helena, Montana for the “March for Our Guns.”
NPR reported the event was organized by Brent Webber, took place near the state Capitol, and featured a range of speakers from students to a state representative.
“Our freedoms come first,” Webber told the crowd. “No one will infringe on our right to keep and bear arms.”
Attendees were primarily families and older men. Sixteen-year-old Austyn Brown said he was hoping to see more teenagers, although many of them attended the nearby “March for Our Lives” instead.
“They need to get educated about guns,” he explained to NPR. “Media has been shoved in their head that guns will kill them, that guns are evil, and only bad people carry guns. That's so untrue.”
Republican State Rep. Seth Berglee told ABC News the event could have been renamed “March for Our Rights” and was just a group of people getting together to “reiterate what we believe in.”
“We're all against gun violence. Nobody wants to see kids die,” Berglee, an Army veteran and reserve police officer explained. “It comes down to solutions and in my perspective, we're marching for something but we want Montanans to know we haven't had a major school shooting for years and so it's not a major issue here.”
He added that instead of taking away guns from law-abiding citizens, he'd like to see schools become modernized and have armed officers to respond to a shooter.
According to NPR, many attendees of the event advocated for improvements in mental health to curb mass shootings.
“The weapon is not what injures or kills or hurts people,” said lifelong hunter Mike Glueckert. "It's the individual behind it. And that's what we need to govern.
Jeff Hulbert, the founder of the pro-Second Amendment organization Patriot Picket, acknowledged to ABC News that the “March for Our Guns” and “March for Our Lives” have different means of achieving their goal.
However, they both want the same thing: to make schools safer.
The pro-Second Amendment rallies that took place throughout the country occurred on the same day that thousands attended a massive gun control rally in Washington, D.C. and marched in various cities.