Is it legal to shoot GOV workers for tresspassing on your property in MT? (job market, price)

[bigskydude]

Originally Posted by bellringer

No GroupThink where I'm originally from, San Antonio. I don't know what the deal is here in Tucson? Montana sounds like it has some interesting free thinkers. It also sounds like the Wild West never died out there. Is Montana the state where you can drive as fast as you want? Or is that somewhere else?

Really, you can drive as fast as you want in any state ... you just gotta be faster than the highway patrol in some of them.

[Fodderman]

Originally Posted by bellringer

Is Montana the state where you can drive as fast as you want? Or is that somewhere else?

I believe this is correct (or nearly so):

The feds used to have a national 55mph speed limit in place (and I'm surprised that the current administration hasn't put it back in place). When it was removed, they left it to the individual states to set their own maximum statewide speed limits. Montana never bothered. So, you would only find speed limits in incorporated areas. Many state highways were simply not posted.

...And then the news of this got published. And then the yahoos (and googles and msns) started coming to drive fast with no fear. And then car companies started coming in to test drive their cars on the Montana roads.

...And then people started getting tickets even though there was no posted spead limit. Because, while there was no arbitrary number set to limit your speed, there was, and still is, the common sense (and subjective) law that you are not allowed to drive - at ANY time - in an unsafe manner or faster than conditions call for. This means that, even if the posted speed limit is 55mph, you should not drive 55mph if that speed is unsafe.

...And then the politicians realized that not too many people (especially those from outside Montana) have enough common sense to understand that last part and that they had better put the arbitrary numbers back up on the roads.

[Rickers]

Yes that's the way it went down, Montana never had a state speed limit for years. The way it is now it's generally 75 on the freeways, 70 on the state highways and of coarse at some curves you will see a lower limit sometimes with an curve arrow and a lower speed sign in yellow. Not all curves have these signs. Also on tricky sections of state highways with a lot of driveways curves and places where lots of deer cross there may be a speed limit such as 55 or 65 posted on the state highways. There may not be a lot of highway patrol officers monitoring the speeds but there are some. If you are speeding, don't be surprised if you end up getting a ticket, they are very good at hiding. Also if you get a speeding ticket in Montana and you have out of state licence plates, expect to have to pay the fine right on the spot (Mexico style) They don't trust visitors to return in a month to appear in court or to mail it in once they get back home.

[Reziac]

This is how I understand it happened: MT used to have no set limit but was "as conditions permit". A few years ago some dork was driving WAY too fast for conditions, got a ticket, and sued the state because far as he was concerned they hadn't proved that conditions DIDN'T permit him to drive that fast. Anyway, for its own protection against future lawsuits, MT decided to implement a speed limit, albeit at the top normal safe speed, rather than the arbitrary Fed limit.

As to the cautionary speed signs on curves and such -- in MT, where they know how to bank curves correctly (so your vehicle tends to follow the road), these signs always allow about 5mph "safe zone" (that is, you'll still be safe if you drive up to 5mph faster than the cautionary sign says). Conversely in CA, where all the roads are banked the wrong way (so curves want to "throw you off the road") the cautionary signs need to be taken as gospel.

Really, the roads in CA are all crowned and banked the wrong way. WTF?? do they only hire engineers who couldn't get a job anywhere else??

[Rickers]

I've seen so many log trucks rolled over with the logs strewn across some cow field. I even saw a big rig tip over on the curves at Dog (rainbow) lake on the C.S.K.T reservation, the guy was hauling Reisers tortillas and they were all over the highway ! We parked and sat on the rocks overlooking the accident scene and watched the recovery operation. We got hungry looking at all those tortillas on the road and went home to eat some burritos !

[bellringer]

Not that I like to drive 100mph+, or anything, but in Texas(my parts anyway), we had a 10mph "buffer," on the highways. I always liked to go about 85 on the wide open spaces. You want to get where you are going, and like Red Skelton said about driving through Texas, . . . it's miles and miles of miles and miles. Drove from Tucson to San Antonio a few years back. Found out,. . . Lordsburg, NM does not have a buffer.

[bellringer]

I was pretty far out of town, and it was still posted 75.

[Mt-7]

I always thought the idea of no speed limit was to get your tag on a deer?
You mean I am supposed to shoot them?

[Broz]

I would think the Ozark Hills of Missouri would be a better place if one was to try to shoot a Gov. worker for tresspassing. Murder cases here are very hard to trace and solve due to the fact that there are no dental records and that the DNA all matches..

.

[Rickers]

Originally Posted by Broz

I would think the Ozark Hills of Missouri would be a better place if one was to try to shoot a Gov. worker for tresspassing. Murder cases here are very hard to trace and solve due to the fact that there are no dental records and that the DNA all matches.. .

Now that was funny !