What is Ryan Busse Trying to Hide From Montana Voters Before the November Election?

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. It 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, 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 has declined to publicly release his tax returns.

Whatcha Hiding, Ryan?

There’s something the former firearm industry executive-turned gun control firebrand doesn’t want Montanans to know. 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 the 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 to Giffords today.

Busse talks to Montanans about his history in the firearm industry, but not so much about his work to eliminate their Second Amendment rights. He pitches himself much like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is doing – as a plaid-clad hunter who could be your neighbor. It’s an act and a thin veil that 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 conveniently forgets about the times he said Gov. Gianforte represents “fascism and authoritarianism.”

Gun Control Books and Lawsuits Pay

Busse might not want to release his tax returns because he knows it will lay out just how much money he’s 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 for how much money he was paid each time he testified as a paid gun control expert testifying to support efforts to ban MSRs and standard-capacity magazines. One filing showed he raked 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 never made an AR-15-style rifle. He’s submitted “expert” gun control testimony to courts over 20 times.

Sullivan v. Ferguson (W.D. WA): Ryan Busse files yet another “expert” report in support of gun control, this time Washington’s magazine ban. He was paid $150/hr to write this (and $300/hr for any testimony). https://t.co/2IIH99dY9g pic.twitter.com/szkpdMGwRj

— Rob Romano (@2Aupdates) May 1, 2023

Or it could be that Busse is just reading the room and has realized that Montanans might not have an appetite for the gun control he’s been selling. 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 who 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 68,681. Montana’s not densely populated with 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 Big Sky Country. Gov. Gianforte led Busse 52 percent to 30 percent in a February 2024 poll. In June, Gianforte’s lead remained nearly the same, with the Governor polling at 54 percent to 33 percent for Busse.

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