This is in reference to a Posting "A shooting in Montana, a CCW involved" posted on January 19th, 2009, by Mr. Gary Marbutt of the Montana Shooting Sports Association.
1. Mr. Gary Marbutt should learn to keep his mouth shut until he has the facts straight and not jump to any quick conclusions. The reason he jumped all over this story is because of the legislation that was being run through the Montana Legislature the same time that the shooting in Glasgow Montana happened. According to eye wittness accounts from the legislature, he used Mr. Billingsley's name quite frequently while pushing a gun bill through which dealt with conceal carry, self protection and other uses of weapons in the state.
2. Mr. Marbutt never contacted nor made any attemtp to contact Mr. Billingsley concerning. He just ran on hearsay.
3. Mr. Billingsley's weapons were in his vehicle and in a manner that did not require the use of a CCW. He did not carry any of his weapons on his person into the medical facility at any time. This was presumed to be the case by some who have read and responded to Mr. Marbut's Flash News Report. Mr. Billingsley did not have nor need a CCW.
4. Mr. Billingsley did engage the shooter with his 9mm pistol over a distance of about 80 yards,firing one shot but quickly abandoned that weapon for the 308 hunting rifle in his vehicle. No shots were fired from that weapon because his wife could see law enforcement vehicles turning down the street leading to the hospital. Mr. Billingsley did have the shooter in his scope twice, once getting shot in the left hand as he was holding the rifle and aiming at the suspect.
5. Evidently all the gun organizations fight for our gun rights must have learned that Mr. Billingsley's rifle that he used was a single shot break action rifle and lost any interest because it is not an AR based rifle or some other type of semi auto based rifle which seems to be their main focus.
6. I know these facts to be true, except for #5.
I am Scott Billingsley and I was involved in the hospital shooting that happened in Glasgow Montana, Saturday afternoon, January 17th, 2009. I am a regular reader of GBO and have made a couple posts about some misc stuff in the past. Stumbling in to Mr. Marbutt's report the other evening has prompted me to make this post. I had been told about this post by many people but actually seeing the post for the first time Sunday evening rather got me going.
Yes, I do know how to spell Mr. Marbut's name correctly. Maybe he should also learn to spell others correctly.
Attached, Hopefully, are several different links to news papers and tv news articles. They might provide any answers or clairity to this paticular subject.
Respectfully,
Scott E. Billingsley
http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/05/19/news/state/18-tinquest.txthttp://www.kfbb.com/news/local/45368587.htmlhttp://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?s=10389649