A Majority of U.S. Counties Now Identify as Second Amendment Sanctuaries

January 28, 2023

A Majority of U.S. Counties Now Identify as

Second Amendment Sanctuaries

By Mark Schwendau

According to Sanctuary Counties, there are now 1,965 counties protected by Second Amendment Sanctuary legislation at either the state or county level. This represents 61% of all of the 3,033 counties in the United States of America.

Lee Williams, The Gun Writer, recently pointed out this news that the legacy news media has been ignoring. The mainstream news media has remained silent regarding this massive Second Amendment Sanctuary movement.

There are two competing Trends in the country; on the one side, you have socialist Democrat politicians such as Illinois’ Governor J.B. Pritzker and New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul Hogan, as well as Joe Biden, pushing for more and more gun control, on the other side you have a giant movement across the whole country of counties becoming 2nd Amendment sanctuaries where gun ownership is protected.

A map offered by sanctuarycounties.com shows three types of declared sanctuaries by local counties, state and county laws, and state-declared sanctuaries. All three of these have specific pieces of legislation stating they will protect the Second Amendment against all encroachments by the federal government. Those areas of the map marked in green have passed either Second Amendment resolutions or passed legislation declaring themselves to be second amendment sanctuaries. Those in blue represent the counties that are inside a state which passed statewide Second Amendment legislation, such as Texas. The map shows areas of purple, which are the counties that have their own legislation to protect the Second Amendment as well as that of the state.

These protections come in laws, executive proclamations, and resolutions as constitutional carry legislation. Such legislation sets county residents free from any gun restrictions coming from the federal government.

One good example of what these new laws look like in practice is what Governor Mike Parson of Missouri did when he passed the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which essentially notified the federal government that any gun laws abridging gun owners’ Second Amendment rights in his state would have both the courts and law enforcement agencies of Missouri there to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms within the border of their state.

Another state to pass legislation to protect against federal government infringement is Nebraska, where their governor just signed a proclamation designating his State as a being a Second Amendment sanctuary. Right after Governor Pete Ricketts (R) signed it, he said, “Nebraska has always been a state that has supported our Second Amendment rights,” Ricketts said. “As a symbol of that support, I am signing a proclamation declaring Nebraska a Second Amendment Sanctuary State, and with my signature, it will become official.”

Then you have individual counties of the US, like Elko County in Nevada, passing county-level resolutions that declare that the Bill of Rights will be upheld even if it means standing up against either state or federal authorities. The resolution in Elko County specifically said in this, “The abuse of the constitutionally protected rights of the citizens will be dealt with as criminal activity.”

Another good example of Second Amendment protection is the state of Texas, where they put into place a constitutional carry law that allows citizens to carry handguns without a license because the thinking goes that their license, after all, is the Second Amendment.

When you add all these different initiatives going on around the country you get a total of 1,930 counties that have some form of Second Amendment Sanctuary protection either at the state level, the county level, or some combination of the two. One thing that’s not reflected in this map is the counties where they don’t necessarily have any legislation on the books, but the local sheriff and-or state’s attorney has said that they will not enforce any infringement on the Second Amendment.

For example, princess, when you look at this map and see the state of Utah, you see only a handful of counties have passed Second Amendment resolutions. However, about a year and a half ago, every sheriff in Utah signed a joint letter saying they would safeguard the Second Amendment. Part of their letter read, “Importantly, the Second Amendment of our divinely inspired constitution clearly states … ‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed,’” reads the statement. “We hereby recognize a significant principle underlying the Second Amendment: the right to keep and bear arms is indispensable to the existence of a free people.”

County sheriffs are ultimately empowered constitutionally both individually and collectively to do everything to steadfastly protect the Second Amendment and all other individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Just last week we saw this power in action over in Illinois.

Several weeks ago, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) signed into law a new bill that made it illegal to buy, sell, or manufacture assault weapons within Illinois. Some 90% of the county sheriffs of Illinois’ 102 counties then came out saying they would not be enforcing his ban. They collectively said it was unconstitutional and that it wouldn’t be enforced. Just last week, a judge in the state agreed to issue a stay, an official restraining order against that new law saying, among other things there was an egregious violation of the Illinois state constitution when the law was passed and signed by the governor without the advanced public notice and three public readings of the law.

Judge Joshua Morrison granted a temporary restraining order against Illinois’ new gun ban for 866 plaintiffs in Effingham County’s lawsuit. He found the state’s ban on so-called assault weapons, including popular guns like the AR-15 and AK-47, violated several sections of the Illinois State Constitution and also contradicts the latest gun-rights ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).

“The Court finds the Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success in relation to the equal protection clause of the Illinois Constitution and that the Defendant’s use of criteria, especially those that is not evenly applied violates the face of the Supreme Court’s findings in New York State Rifle Association, Inc v. Bruen [SIC],” Judge Morrison wrote in his decision.

“The Court cannot find it logical that a warden of a prison (included in the exempted category) is necessarily better trained or more experienced in the handling Of weapons than retired military personnel (not included in the exempted category),” Judge Morrison wrote. “It also does not follow that a member of the National Guard would be Ies well or experienced in handling a firearm when they are not on active duty compared to when they are. Further, other rational and logical exemptions have been excluded, such as a person in a wheelchair who cannot use a shotgun due to concerns, thus discriminating against a class.”

Judge Morrison said the state was unable to justify the need for the ban or the exceptions to it.

“Due to the lack of compliance of the Defendants, the Court is left with nothing to conclude what might be the compelling public purpose of this legislation,” he wrote. “In oral arguments, the Defendants suggested that the goal of the legislation was to reduce firearms deaths and mass shooting casualties; however, they offered no evidence that the individuals in their newly created class on training and experience were any more or less likely to commit these crimes, nor did they provide evidence that the individuals excluded from this class were more likely to commit crimes.”

Governor Pritzker has vowed to appeal the decision as many others of Illinois vow to engage in civil disobedience in that they do not want to register the weapons of this new and unconstitutional law with the Illinois State Police. The law was to go into effect later this year.

CONCLUSION:

Many Americans are ready to fight and die to protect their American Constitution and Bill of Rights. Right or wrong, they view Democrat leaders such as Biden, Newsom, Pritzker, and Hochul as domestic enemies within. They do so as the laws these people propose, get passed, and signed into law lack logic and merit and cannot be defended in a public debate. Simply put, they are ludicrous. The laws seem more about disarming law-abiding Americans or making their lives more difficult to own firearms legally.

These same American also recognize court packing to serve an agenda. It has been said that our SCOTUS is just one vote away from disarming America, and the majority of Americans will stand for none of that. Any judge who does not put the Constitution and Bill of Rights before the political party will become “target acquired.” The Second Amendment is “non-negotiable” to these Americans.

Illinois already has the Illinois Firearms Owner Identification (FOID) card requirement for all resident gun owners dating back to 1968. That illegal and unconstitutional invasion of gun owners’ privacy and curtailing of their Second Amendment rights has done absolutely nothing to deter crime in the blue City of Chicago, which has now become a killing field for minorities due to gang activities.

Crime statistics investigations have found most people engaging in these murder homicides do not hold a valid Illinois FOID card, and the weapons used were stolen from legal gun owners. The guns are also in possession of known previous felons, which is illegal. Also, these crimes are committed by readily concealable handguns and not assault-style long guns, as Democrats so love to obsess about these days.

All of the above prove Democrats know little about guns and nothing about gun-related crimes. The best thing blue states could do to curb crime today is to make their states all constitutional carry states, whereby criminals would never know who was armed and who was not. This old shell game would be more than many of them could bear. Another thing most legal gun owners want to be brought back is the death penalty. Mass shooters should be given a nice comfortable seat in the electric chair. That would curtail these incidents of cowardice overnight.

Democrats seem more about creating problems that lead to chaos and anarchy than solving them, and that should every American voting red and suspicious of them! You don’t pass laws like the Illinois SAFE-T Act and this recent gun ban legislation back-to-back unless you are trying to create turmoil.

The Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) reports the Illinois Democrats’ gun ban will wrongfully impact nearly 2.5 million lawful Illinois gun owners.

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Mark S. Schwendau is a retired technology professor who has always had a sideline in news-editorial writing where his byline has been, “Bringing little known news to people who simply want to know the truth.” He classifies himself as a Christian conservative who God cast to be a realist. Mark is an award-winning educator who has published seven books and numerous peer-reviewed trade journal articles, some of which can be found online. His father was a fireman/paramedic, while his mother was a registered nurse. He holds multiple degrees in technology education, industrial management, OSHA Safety, and Driver’s Education. His website is www.IDrawIWrite.Tech.

Templeton Times

Sunday, January 29, 2023