Anti-Gun Montana Hopeful Ryan Busse’s Silent but Deadly Secrets

Now there’s something you don’t expect to see in Big Sky.

Imagine my delight when I learned there was an anti-gun candidate for Montana Governor named Bussy

Excuse me, “Busse.” (If you’re not familiar with what that struck-through misspelling means, Urban Dictionary can catch you up.) You see, our puckery little Democratic candidate is doing his best to hold in several years’ worth of hot air. He knows that very few Big Sky Country voters support his virulent anti-Second Amendment views, so Bussy is doing his best not to let the last few years of his life squeak out. Specifically, he would like to prevent Montana voters from seeing how much money he’s earned from anti-gun groups and advocacy. It’s been a long time since Bussy had to work so hard, and it seems to have stretched him rather thin. We bet it’s uncomfortable.

That’s why, today, we’re taking some of the pressure off with a report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which had nothing to do with the above paragraph and everything to do with exposing what Bussy excuse me, Busse is trying to keep silent (but deadly).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why Doesn’t Ryan Busse Want Montana Voters to Know He Makes Money Attacking Gun Rights?

By Larry Keane

Montana’s a very big state. They call it Big Sky Country for a reason. There are lots of places to hide things in Montana that someone might never want to see the light of day.

That’s the bet that Ryan Busse is making in his bid as the Democratic candidate challenging Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte for governor. Gov. Gianforte released his financial records to the public, laying out for everyone to see how he earns his money. Turns out, if anyone didn’t already know, Gov. Gianforte is a wealthy man. The second-term governor reported an income of over $265 million since 2005, the most of which came after Oracle Corp. bought his Bozeman-based RightNow Technologies for $1.8 billion. As governor, he earns $120,000.

That information was released to keep a “commitment to transparency,” said Anna Marian Block, a spokesperson for Gov. Gianforte.

Busse’s campaign declined to publicly release tax returns.

Whatcha Hiding?

The former firearm industry executive-turned gun control firebrand doesn’t want Montanans to know something. That something might just be how he’s profited from working for special-interest gun control groups and authoring books bashing Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. When he wasn’t doing that, he was bashing the industry that makes those rights tangible.

Busse joined Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence gun control group in 2021. He was brought on as a senior advisor about the same time as their former senior advisor David Chipman left when he was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Busse is still listed as a senior advisor today.

Busse talks to Montanans about his history in the firearm industry but not so much of his work to eliminate their Second Amendment rights. He pitches himself much like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is doing – a plaid-clad hunter who could be your neighbor. It’s an act and a thin veil the both of them throw over their gun control policy positions. Both Gov. Walz and Busse want to ban the most popular selling centerfire rifle in America today, the Modern Sporting Rifle (MSR).

Both seem to not want to talk much about their embrace of gun control though. Busse tells Montana media that politics these days is “ugly and divisive,” but ignores when he said Gov. Gianforte represents “fascism and authoritarianism.”

Gun Control Books and Lawsuits Pay

Busse might not be wanting to release his tax returns because he knows it will lay out just how much money he made pitching his gun control book in which he bashes the firearm industry. Or maybe how much money he didn’t make.

He might also have to answer how much money he was paid for each time he testified as a paid gun control expert testifying to ban MSRs and ban standard-capacity magazines. One filing showed he was raking in $150 per hour to write “expert” testimony and $300 per hour to sit in a court to testify. That’s pretty good money for someone who once worked for a firearm manufacturer that has never made an AR-15-style rifle. He’s submitted “expert” gun control testimony to courts over 20 times.

Or it could be that Busse is reading the room and realizing that Montanans might not have an appetite for his gun control antics. Newsweek published an article with an accompanying heat map showing the states with the highest percentage of guns owned by citizens. Montana topped their chart with 66.3 percent. That’s two out of every three that said they own a firearm. Last year there were 128,030 background checks for the sale of firearm in the state. So far this year there have been 68,6812. Montana’s not a densely-populated state. Montana has just under 1.2 million people across the entire state.

While Busse was shilling his gun control book on Comedy Central, CNN and MSNBC and chatting with reporters from coastal elite left-wing publications like The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The New Yorker, Gov. Gianforte was at NSSF’s SHOT Show^®, speaking at the Governors Forum and telling industry executives why they should consider Montana open for business.

That might be why with less than three months until election day, Busse’s gun control baggage is weighing him down in Montana. Gov. Gianforte led Busse 52 percent to 30 percent in a February 2024 poll. In June, the differences remained nearly the same, with Gov. Gianforte polling at 54 percent and Busse at 33 percent.

Busse won’t turn over his tax returns to Montana voters because there’s something he’s trying to hide. He should know by now that Montana voters have already figured him out.