An Ex-Gun Industry Executive — And Democrat — Looks To Become Montana’s Next Governor

When Ryan Busse, a Democrat from Kalispell, announced his bid for Montana governor in September, Don Kaltschmidt, chair of the state Republican Party, immediately condemned him as an “anti-gun extremist and radical environmentalist.”

Busse, a longtime environmental advocate and former firearms industry executive, chuckled.

“Insert laughter,” he told HuffPost. “Are you fucking kidding me? I’ve sold 3 million guns. I hunt and fish with my kids every chance I get. I don’t even know how many guns I own.”

Busse is seeking the Democratic nomination to take on first-term GOP Gov. Greg Gianforte in November. He sees Kaltschmidt’s attack as part of a GOP facade meant to distract Montana voters from the Republican Party’s extreme positions on guns, climate change, reproductive rights, taxes and more.

“These are just made-up terms to scare people,” he said. “I think a lot of Democrats just sort of go hide in the corner when they get screamed at with these overarching, pejorative names that I don’t even know what they mean. I’m not going to do it. I’m throwing the punches back. There’s nothing about me, at all, that’s radical.”

As for being painted a “radical environmentalist,” Busse posed a question: “Does that mean I want to keep our rivers clean and air clean, and not have environmental disasters that kill wildlife or kill our way of life? Guilty. Guilty.”

Busse grew up on a ranch in Kansas and moved to Kalispell, Montana, three decades ago, drawn by his passion for hunting and the outdoors. He arrived as a Republican, having had conservative radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh “piped into” the tractor he operated on the family ranch, he said.

But his views began to shift in the early 2000s when President George W. Bush’s