School officials are taking protective measures at a Billings elementary school after a neighbor has again been spotted brandishing a firearm outside his home.
Gabriel Metcalf lives directly across the busy, four-lane Broadwater Avenue from Broadwater Elementary School. Many parents, school officials and law enforcement officers watching his current actions know him from three years ago, when he started “patrolling” outside his home with a shotgun, as he explained to officers in 2023, according to a judge’s order in a criminal case against him.
Metcalf told authorities at the time that the patrols were to protect himself and his mother, with whom he lived, from a neighbor. In 2024, he pled guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm in a school zone and was sentenced to three years of probation in the U.S. District Court of Montana. Because the charge was a felony, he was permanently barred from possessing firearms.
But that conviction was dismissed in September 2025, after a panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Metcalf wasn’t given fair notice that he could be violating the Gun-Free School Zones Act, a federal law that prohibits anyone from carrying a gun within 1,000 feet of a school.
On Monday, Billings Public School officials held a meeting with parents at Broadwater Elementary and heard emotional pleas to take action.
Protective measures the district is taking include installing a heavy black tarp along the chain-link fence on the south-facing edge of the property to obstruct Metcalf’s view of the playground from his front lawn.
The district is also updating parents about the situation. It has moved recess indoors, adjusted the daily schedule and had police officers spend extra time at the school.
At a school board meeting on Monday night, Superintendent Erwin Garcia said the most lasting solution would be a change in state law to close the loophole that led to the dismissal of Metcalf’s conviction and restored his gun rights.
A so-called “automatic licensure” law in the 2021 Montana Legislature expanded concealed carry rights, meaning that anyone without a violent felony history and legally able to own a gun in Montana could do so and be considered licensed by the state, without a separate application.
But because a person is usually notified of the gun-free school zone rule during the licensing process, the Ninth Circuit found that the automatic licensure process in Montana failed to notify Metcalf that he’d be in violation of federal law by carrying a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. The court said Metcalf was the “first, and to our knowledge, only person in Montana” to raise the specific legal loophole that led to his felony dismissal.
“Our narrow conclusion results from the unique convergence of” the Montana automatic licensure law and certain legal principles, including fair notice, the court found.
Trustees heard from a handful of parents of Broadwater Elementary students pleading for action.
“All of our kids are afraid to go to school,” said Savannah Morden, one Broadwater mother.
“What’s your plan to address this?” Stephen Thompson asked the trustees. He said a change to state law would be good but would take time, a sentiment echoed by other speakers.
One trustee, Zack Terakedis, appeared upset by the recent development and said he’d been troubled by discussions he’d been having at home with his own children.
“Guns are killing our kids,” Terakedis said. “That’s the conversation I’m having with our kids.”
Terakedis called it “absurd” that the district was dealing with the same problem three years after they thought they’d found a solution.
“I’m telling you, this is not normal,” he said.
Garcia said district officials would work with parents to draft a letter that people could sign, urging the state to take action. The state Legislature won’t meet until January 2027.
Other ideas for immediate action included temporarily closing the school or building a wall.
“You know, you build a wall, kids still have to go home,” Garcia said. “Kids still have to pass by the neighbor one block away, two blocks away.”
Garcia said the district doesn’t have the classroom space in other schools to place the Broadwater students, nor the buses available to transport them. He also told Montana Free Press in an interview Tuesday that Broadwater Elementary has two self-contained special education classes whose students would struggle with a move to a different location.
Asked whether kids could temporarily do online schooling, as they did during the COVID-19 pandemic, Garcia said the district no longer has the technology subscriptions needed to offer it and again cited the special education classes, which he said need more consistent in-person schooling.
Billings police are also keeping a closer eye on the situation.
“We’re telling our guys, ‘Be in the area as much as you can,’” said Sgt. Jeff Stovall, who handles media relations.
Garcia spoke with Metcalf in front of his house Tuesday morning, he told Montana Free Press.
“As soon as he saw me, he said, ‘You sent me to prison,’” Garcia said.
Garcia replied that as the superintendent, he did not have that power. He asked Metcalf to “exercise your rights” at a time when kids weren’t at school.
“He said no, I’m not going to relinquish my rights. […] I’m for the kids, because I’m teaching them that they can have Second Amendment rights.“
Two other community members were also seen talking with him on his front lawn Tuesday.
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