Page 8 - Flathead Beacon // 6.4.14

8 | JUNE 4, 2014 NEWS FLATHEADBEACON.COM

Few Records for State’s Mentally

Just
Sayin’.

Ill Submitted to Gun Database

“If these rules
are allowed to go
into efect, the
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
capacity to manage their own afairs; was tana Code Annotated prevent the Mon-
administration incompetent to stand trial by reason of tana Department of Justice from doing
for all intents and Montana has submitted just three re-
insanity; or was involuntarily committed so. Those statues include a law prohibit-
purposes is creating cords on the residents with serious men- for treatment to a mental facility should ing the state from discriminating against
tal illness to the National Instant Crimi- not own or possess a irearm. This infor- someone who has been involuntarily
America’s next nal Background Check System, even as mation is used when processing back- committed.
energy crisis.”
the number of records submitted nation- ground checks of people looking to buy “Some people view the loss of gun

Mike Duncan of the ally has tripled in the last three years, ac- guns.
privileges as discrimination, so until that
American Coalition for cording to a gun safety advocacy group.
While the NICS program can cur- statute is changed we’re not going to up-
Clean Coal Electricity, Now, a Billings senator is looking to rently access the records of those who load any information into the NICS index
which represents the coal craft legislation that would help the state have been determined to be mentally ill on mental health,” Viets said. “We don’t
industry, responding to a comply with federal laws. Moms Demand by a court in Montana, the federal pro- fee like we’re able to because of the law.”
new sweeping proposal to Action Regional Manager and Montana gram does not have access to many re- Sen. Robyn Driscoll, D-Billings, a
reduce carbon emissions chapter founder Nancy de Pastino said cords about those who have been invol- member of the Law and Justice Interim
across the U.S.
the legislation would prevent guns from untarily committed because the state has Committee, said she is currently consid-

getting in the hands of those with serious only submitted three, according to FBI ering crafting a law that would put the
“One life lost to a mental illness.
data recently released by Every Town For state in line with federal laws. However,
crash is one too “We just want Montana to comply Gun Safety. According to the group, New she is looking to add language that would
with federal law because there are people Hampshire has submitted two records, enable people who have their records sub-
many.”
deemed by the court system to be a danger North Dakota, South Dakota and Massa- mitted to the NICS index to be able to
to themselves or someone else,” Pastino chusetts each have submitted three and earn their gun rights back in the future.
Mike Tooley, director of said. “It’s a fatal gap in the system.”
Rhode Island has submitted zero. On the She is quick to note that the entire process
the Montana Department
of Transportation, The National Instant Criminal Back- other hand, Oregon has submitted more is still in its infancy.
explaining the importance ground Check System, or NICS, is a pro- than 29,000 records and Washington has “I’m trying to make sure it’s a bill that
of addressing deadly gram managed by the FBI to determine provided more than 97,000 records. Ida- would actually pass the Legislature,” she
crash rates on the state’s if a person is federally prohibited from ho has submitted over 4,000 records.
said. “We’re not compliant with feder-
highways.
owning a irearm before they purchase Jennifer Viets, program manager for al laws so we’ll lose some money, but it’s
one. The Gun Control Act of 1968 deter- the state’s Criminal Justice Information minimal so I don’t care about the money.
mined that anyone who was a danger to Network, said Montana has submitted so To me, it’s a safety issue.”
“I remember when themselves or others; lacked the mental
few records because four statutes in Mon-
[email protected]
he was captured. It
was awful. When Glencore Hires Advisory Firm for CFAC

I got the text, I just
started screaming
and went to turn on
By BEACON STAFF
of Montana’s congressional delegation to get the site designated
the TV. It’s surreal as a Superfund site so it can be cleaned up and used again.
that he’s coming Glencore, the Swiss company that owns the Columbia Falls According to its website, rePlan “provides social assessment,
home.”
Aluminum Company, has hired a Canadian company to help de- advisory and management services to natural resource compa-
Hailey, Idaho resident termine the aluminum plant’s future.
nies and inancial institutions around the world.” It has worked
Audrey Kirk, who attends According to Kellie Danielson, CEO of Montana West Eco- with Glencore on projects before.
the same church as the nomic Development, a representative from rePlan, which is Danielson said the recent visit yielded nothing about speciic
family of U.S. Army Sgt. based in Toronto, visited the Flathead last month to assess the plans for the CFAC site.
Bowe Bergdahl. The CFAC situation.
“I think it was just an opportunity for Glencore to hire some-
28-year-old soldier had been “They were asked by Glencore to assess the community sen- one to be their eyes and ears and perhaps be their representative
held prisoner by the Taliban
since mid 2009 until he was timent, and what rePlan’s role was besides assessing community to help Glencore choose some kind of path,” she said.
handed over in exchange for sentiment is to evaluate the property and suggest to Glencore As part of MWED, Danielson said she hopes the situation at
the release of ive Afghan what is the highest and best use of that property,” Danielson said.
CFAC can be resolved and that the site can be used in a produc-
CFAC was shuttered in 2009, and has sat dormant since. tive way again to beneit the Flathead Valley’s economy.
detainees held by the U.S.
There has been a recent push by Columbia Falls oicials and part
But for now, there’s little movement toward resolution.

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