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Across America counties and towns have been passing resolutions affirming their status as Second Amendment “sanctuaries.” Recently Mohave County became the latest to adopt such a resolution. Ali Swenson reports for the Phoenix New Times:
“The Board affirms its support of the Second Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, and declares Mohave County a Second Amendment Sanctuary County,” reads a resolution approved unanimously on November 4 by the Mohave County Board of Supervisors.
The move follows a recent trend across the southern and western United States for rural municipalities to reaffirm their support for gun rights by calling themselves “sanctuaries,” an apparent riffing on other cities’ decisions to become sanctuaries for immigrants.
Needles, California, which hugs the western border of Arizona’s Mohave County, became a “sanctuary” for gun rights in July.
The push this year by progressives to ban guns in America, culminating in failed Democratic Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke’s pledge to “take your AR-15,” has pushed many municipalities into reaffirming their support for state and federal constitutional protections of the right to bear arms. Valerie Richardson reported in the Washington Times on March 19:
Last week, the City Council of Roswell, New Mexico, passed a sanctuary resolution that had nothing to do with illegal immigration and everything to do with firearms.
In an 8-1 vote, the council declared Roswell a Second Amendment sanctuary city, joining dozens of other localities throughout the rural West offering safe havens to firearms owners from a tide of Democrat-driven gun control legislation that they consider unconstitutional.
“It’s our right to be able to keep and bear arms,” said Roswell City Councilor Savino Sanchez Jr., who voted for the resolution. “Little by little, they’re taking away our rights as gun owners.”
In New Mexico, 28 of the state’s 33 counties have approved similar sanctuary resolutions this year, sparked by a sweeping gun control package pushed by left-of-center Democrats who now dominate state government after riding November’s blue tsunami into office.
“Oh, it was more than just a change in the government,” Roswell Mayor Dennis Kintigh said. “A progressive tidal wave swept through New Mexico. There was a significant shift to the left end of the political spectrum.”
Other states where rural communities are embracing Second Amendment protection measures include Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, raising the hackles of Democrats who champion sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants but draw the line when it comes to firearms owners.
After 26 of Illinois’ 102 counties passed resolutions against the state legislature’s gun control push, a Democratic lawmaker swung back with a bill to ban localities from “restricting enforcement of any State law or regulation concerning the ownership or use of firearms,” as reported by the Illinois News Network.
Leading the charge in New Mexico and elsewhere are sheriffs, who argue that they lack the resources to monitor private firearms transfers, the technology to conduct more stringent background checks and the legal authority to confiscate firearms under “red flag” laws without search warrants.
Read more here.
These measures, though welcome by second amendment supporters are mostly symbolic in nature. In all but five states, state laws preempt local gun laws, and therefore counties, towns, and cities cannot make their own laws on guns. The best way second amendment supporters can help themselves is to vote and to get their guns and their training now.
Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.
