9 April 2018 — 1218 mdt

GOP U.S. Senate hopeful Olszewski endorsed by teenaged gun rally leader

Columbia Falls High School senior Braxton Shewalter loves life, God, and guns — and State Senator Al Olszewski (R-Kalispell, SD-6). The endorsement screenshot at left is from Braxton’s Twitter account, and he repeats the endorsement on his Rally4Rights website, which advertises the pro Second Amendment rally he hopes to hold in Kalispell’s Depot Park at noon on Saturday, 14 April.

Olszewski may be the least pro-firearms member of the quartet — his ballot mates are Russell Fagg, Troy Downing, and drone shooting Matt Rosendale — vying for the Republican nomination to run against incumbent Democrat Sen. Jon Tester, so rooting for the home team may factor into Shewalter’s endorsement.

Shewalter is running a Go Fund Me campaign to raise $400 to pay for the permit to use Depot Park. Thus far, he’s raised $220, which includes a $50 donation from Libertarian congressional candidate Elinor Swanson, of Billings.

A list of speakers for the rally has not been announced.

Similar rallies are being held across the nation on 14 April. For example, the North Carolina Lightfoot Militia will rally in Raleigh. The grisly flag at bottom left, which reminds me of the Waffen SS's Death Head, is from a website announcing the event.

Toward summer’s end, the pro-firearms Mother of All Rallies is scheduled for 8 September on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Whether the mall actually will be MARed remains to be seen.

At this point, no counter demonstration is planned for Shewalter's Flathead event. In fact, the informal word from human rights groups and groups favoring tighter controls on firearms, is to avoid the rally; to live and let live. That's probably good advice. I've attended Second Amendment rallies in Kalispell in the past, and not been harassed, but I have not yet decided whether to attend.