In Busse's book and on the stump, he takes aim at his former industry, and himself, for an evolution he realized years ago was “really going off the rails.”
KALISPELL – Sometimes, Ryan Busse freely concedes, his one-man crusade against the"radicalization" of the firearms industry and National Rifle Association is a lonely endeavor.All reminders Busse isn't alone at all.
Now, in his book and on the stump, Busse takes aim at his former industry, and even himself, for an evolution he realized two decades ago was “really going off the rails.” It is this persona that helps explain how Busse is thriving with a narrative — or, at least, hasn’t been muzzled — where all others fail.
So after playing baseball at little Bethany College in Kansas he gravitated to a vocation that allowed him to be outdoors and around guns. First it was briefly with Burris Optics, but then he and a colleague were asked to run a two-man shop for Kimber, a fledgling outfit in Clackamas, Oregon, known for its craftsmanship. Told they could settle anywhere, northwest Montana was the idyllic fit.
The boycott, which resulted in a subpoena and New York grilling of Busse for potential antitrust-law violations, jump-started today’s radicalization, he now believes. “Heck, I was trying to build a gun company and I wanted to sell more guns, but I didn’t want to sell them because people were fearful of a Black president. That really started to scare me.”Until Sandy Hook, Ryan says he was “someone who tried to do well while doing good” while Sara, his conscience prodder, was “focused on doing good and the doing well part will take care of itself.”
On Valentine’s Day 2018, a shooter with an AR-15 killed 17 and injured 17 at high school in Parkland, Florida. In a moment of rage, Sara posted on Facebook that “the ONLY way this will EVER change is if the NRA goes up in FLAMES. Period.” During a tense 2020 Black Lives Matter rally in Kalispell, a man in a red MAGA hat with a holstered pistol screamed from spittle range at 12-year-old Badge, jabbing a finger in his chest and berating him as “an evil little bastard.”
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers publicly distanced itself. So did Kimber. Some hunting groups label him a traitor. “He started with one book and one voice, and as soon as he started speaking out and as soon as people started reading his book, he wasn’t alone for long.”