BILLINGS – Two weeks after demonstrators at a March for Our Lives rally in downtown Billings demanded action on gun legislation, a pro-gun rally will take place in the Magic City on Saturday, April 7.
An organizer of the upcoming pro gun rally says he’s tired of gun owners being portrayed as villains and wants people to know most gun owners are responsible citizens who don’t deserve to have their Second Amendment infringed upon.
“My guns have never harmed anybody. I’ve never harmed anybody with a firearm in my life,” said Pete Siegel, a retired Billings resident and avid gun owner. “When I was in high school, I got into a fist fight. We didn’t use guns to shoot people and we took our guns to school. I think it’s more of a culture thing than it is a firearm thing.”
“And this villainizing gun owners and the NRA and the people that want to use their firearms, to carry defensively or for sporting uses, I think is wrong. I think people need to look at the individual committing the crimes. It’s not the guns that are doing it.”
Gun advocates rallied in Helena on March 24, the same day as hundreds of March for Our Lives rallies across the country, championing the Second Amendment in a peaceful rally at the Capitol’s steps.
Organizers are inviting all supporters of the Second Amendment to Saturday’s event.
“The message is that there is people from all walks of life that support the Second Amendment,” said Siegel. “I want the whole spectrum included as well as the kids that have those guns, that they’re showing what the Second Amendment is about and it can be used for the right reasons, that the villainizing we’ve seen in the media is not the real reason for the Second Amendment.”
The rally will take place start at 11 a.m. at the Yellowstone County Courthouse Saturday with guest speakers.
Siegel expects several hundred to attend.
Reporting by Dustin Klemann for MTN News
