Two Strikes rule for "out-of-staters"

Some folks certainly consider themselves above the law.

Troy Carlson apparently does.

A Minnesota resident whose family owns property south of Malta in in the Larb Hills, Carlson was ordered to pay more than $2,000 in fines and restitution for allowing his teenage son to illegally kill a 5X5 bull elk during the 2013 archery season.

According to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, FWP warden Ben Morin was responding to a trespassing call from the family’s Blue Ridge Ranch when he stopped along a public road to talk with Carlson and his son, who had the dead elk in the back of their truck.

It either takes an enormous amount of gall or an amazing lack of clear thought to call the game warden to complain about trespassers while you’re packing out an illegal elk. In Carlson’s case I suspect a bit of both.

This wasn’t the first time Carlson ran afoul of the law. In 2010, Troy Carlson and several other family members agreed to pay a total of $50,000 in restitution and fines to the state for illegal baiting, hunting without licenses, illegal outfitting and other wildlife related crimes on their Phillips County property.

As part of his punishment for this latest transgression, Carlson also agreed to not apply for any archery elk permits in Blaine, Phillips and Valley counties for this hunting season.

Yeah, that should stop him. A paltry fine and the promise not to apply for an archery permit this season. It’s an old story. Wealthy out-of-staters buy a hunting property in Montana. Make up their own rules. Get caught. Fork over some cash. Business as usual.

I suggest a two strikes rule for out-of-state game-law breakers. Get busted twice and you’re done hunting in Montana. No amount of money can bail you out.

Go back to the land of Prince and fried cheese and spend your falls watching the Vikings try out quarterbacks.

Especially if your latest transgression involved a kid. You don’t deserve to hunt here. You really don’t deserve to hunt anywhere.

But then the rules that the rest of us play by don’t apply to you. You’re special. You’re a landowner. You may even be a one-percenter and I don’t mean that you’re a bad ass biker.

So pass that pompous attitude on to your kid. Let him know how special he is. Heck, you probably already went to the FWP auction and bought back the 5X5 bull.

Rules?

They really don’t apply to you.

Good thing to teach your kid.