Pro-gun is an odd way to describe a senior advisor to the gun control Giffords who has served as an expert witness defending gun control laws in states around the country. While Ames does note in his piece that Busse left his job at Kimber in 2020 and subsequently wrote a book blaming the gun industry for the growing popularity of modern sporting rifles, the investigative reporter failed to disclose that after Busse cut ties with the gunmaker his next gig was serving as an advisor to Joe Biden's presidential campaign before latching on to his gig at Giffords. 

Instead of highlighting Busse's work defending Washington's ban on "large capacity" magazines or Illinois's prohibition on guns designated as "assault weapons", Ames portrays Busse as a Second Amendment advocate who suddenly lost faith with the NRA a few years ago. 

“I’m a populist Democrat fighting for basic things,” Busse told me in late August as he returned from his 140th campaign event, an open-door fundraiser that drew more than 120 people to the Dram Shop, a growler-filling station in downtown Missoula. At the event, Busse was approached by several gun owners who told him that they dropped their NRA memberships for the same reasons that he wrote his industry tell-all: “Because the NRA went crazy.”

“The NRA lost its way when it prioritized hardline partisan politics above all else. In so doing, they abandoned millions of gun owners and discarded the social contract of responsibility upon which all rights depend,” Busse told me. “All of this played a huge role in breaking our political system.”

This is the message that led the Montana Republican Party to label Busse a “gun grabber” and the reason why most red-state Democrats avoid the topic altogether. But Busse has spent his personal and professional lives surrounded by firearms. For gun-owning sportsmen, his candidacy poses a riddle: If a man who spent his life shooting, collecting and selling guns can’t be trusted on the issue, who can?

“Every Democrat gets called a gun grabber,” he told me. “I own more guns than all of them. I shoot more than them. I own about 40 guns. I’m a hunter. I have three bird dogs, and I love to bird hunt. It’s recreational, but it’s also food gathering for our family. We eat wild game: elk, deer, antelope, grouse, partridge.”

Gun control advocates were complaining about the NRA's opposition to "commonsense" gun laws and its stance on the Second Amendment long before Busse ever publicly criticized the organization. In fact, by the time Busse was hired by Kimber in 1995, Democratic politicians like Arkansas Senator David Pryor were labeling Wayne LaPierre's rhetoric "obscene", and Democratic mayors were suing gunmakers and seeking to hold them responsible for the acts of criminals. So when, exactly, does Busse think the NRA "went crazy"? 

It appears it was right around the time that Busse decided to part ways with the gun company that signed his paychecks, which is awfully convenient. 

Busse himself has shied away from informing voters about his work with the gun control lobby, choosing instead to cut campaign ads where he calls himself a "gun guy" who's sold "three million of 'em" before shooting a Tannerite-filled target. 

You won't find Busse talking about the need for "common sense" gun laws much on the campaign trail, and his campaign website is utterly devoid of any of the policies he's defended on behalf of states like Washington and Illinois. Instead, voters are left with this:

Ryan spent more than 25 years as a senior sales executive of a major firearms company. He is a responsible gun owner and collector, and he believes in the Second Amendment right for all responsible Americans to own and protect their families with firearms. Ryan’s memoir, Gunfight, details his opposition to those who use guns to threaten or intimidate. His book also details his opposition to gun industry marketing practices which encourage violence and radicalization, because those actions put innocent people in danger and jeopardize all of our rights as Americans.

Despite Busse's attempt to camouflage his gun control activism, voters in Montana don't appear to be warming up to him. Busse has yet to crack 40% in any poll of the governor's race, and has trailed incumbent Greg Gianforte by 16 to 22 points in every survey of Montana voters. The media may be trying to gaslight Montanans into believing that Busse will protect their right to keep and bear arms, but it looks like the voters have concluded that Busse isn't a straight shooter when talking about guns, gun control, and our Second Amendment rights.