Explicit fliers spark criticism of self-defense bill
By WALT WILLIAMS Chronicle Staff Writer
HELENA -- House Democrats targeted by a recent political mailing for voting against a self-defense gun bill were joined by law-enforcement officials Tuesday who said the proposed law puts public safety at risk.
Democrats are fuming over fliers depicting a dead woman in a plastic body bag, which the Montana Republican Party mailed to residents in at least five House districts last week.
The fliers accuse Democrats who voted against the bill of being "so anti-gun" that they "want you prosecuted when you are forced to protect your family with a firearm."
Among the lawmakers targeted were Rep. Bob Ebinger, D-Livingston, and Rep. JP Pomnichowski, D-Bozeman, who said she received what was essentially a death threat as a result of the mailing.
House Republican leaders have apologized for the fliers and called them "garbage."
However, Chris Wilcox, executive director of the Montana Republican Party, said, "All this supposed outrage about this from legislators is really the pot calling the kettle black."
He was referring to last fall's Democratic mailing of a flier with a picture of a battered woman that encouraged voters to "stop" GOP candidates "before someone else gets hurt."
This week's furor surrounds House Bill 340 by Rep. Jack Wells, R-Bozeman, which would allow citizens to carry concealed weapons inside city limits without a permit. It also would give people added legal protections if they claim self-defense when using a gun against another person.
The bill passed the House with the support of both Republicans and Democrats.
However, many Democrats opposed it, saying that current law already gave people the right to defend themselves and that every law-enforcement organization that had spoken on it had been against it.
To reinforce that point, House Democrats, police officers, sheriffs' deputies and the Montana Highway Patrol held a news conference Tuesday to express concerns that passage of HB 340 could make it more difficult to prosecute violent crimes committed with firearms.
"Public safety is something that affects all of us," Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Cheryl Liedle said. "It has no partisanship."
House Minority Leader John Parker, D-Great Falls, said Democrats support the right to bear arms and the right of families to protect themselves. The GOP's negative campaign was intended to prey on people's fears "for pure political gain."
When asked about the battered-woman fliers his party sent out, Parker acknowledged that both parties had engaged in negative campaigning during the last election cycle. But both parties had also spoken out against such campaigning during the 2007 session, he said.
"What I'm talking about is (mailing) a very emotionally charged ad that distorts people's views and makes a false representation of their commitment to Second Amendment rights in the middle of a legislative session," he said.
Democrats said the Republican fliers continued to be mailed out after party leaders said they would be stopped. But Wilcox said it was a one-time mailing and some people simply received them later than others.
Democratic lawmakers who were targeted said they received threatening phone calls. Pomnichowski said one caller told her, "'You're dead wrong, and maybe you should be dead.'"
She called the flier "a terrible distortion" of her views that was unnecessary and unproductive.
In response to the Democratic flier -- which targeted Rep. John Sinrud, R-Bozeman, and other Republicans for voting against a bill to raise marriage license fees to support domestic violence programs -- Sinrud sponsored a bill requiring that all campaign material specify the legislation for which a politician is being attacked.
Ebinger said he voted for Sinrud's bill only to be targeted by the Republican fliers several weeks later.
He noted that he didn't know until after the fact that his party had targeted his opponent -- former Republican Rep. Pat Wagman -- with its fliers last fall.
"They can send stuff during the campaign -- we don't know," he said. "And that should not happen. Campaign political material should all be passed through the candidates and given approval, yea or nay."
Wells said in an interview that he disagreed with negative attack ads and has never used them.
He also said his self-defense bill did not obligate prosecutors to do anything they were not already obligated to do -- "and that is to presume someone is innocent until proven guilty."
HB 340 is now in the Senate. No hearing date has been set.
