Opinion
Arizona – -(AmmoLand.com)- Over the past year or so, extremist gun control laws have exploded in several states, primarily as a result of urban majorities riding roughshod over their rural neighbors.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Washington and Oregon, two states with historically liberal gun laws and low crime rates, that have been overwhelmed by a combination of growing urban populations and a sudden influx of cash from anti-rights billionaires.
Mike Bloomberg, with the help of Bill Gates and other ultra-wealthy Washingtonians, has funded a string of modest-sounding (but in reality extreme) gun control measures through Washington’s voter initiative process. The result: a once gun-friendly state suddenly in the running for the title of most firearm-restricted state in the country.
Oregon has gone a similar direction, but instead of initiatives, the assault on individual rights originated in that state’s Democrat-controlled legislature, again with the help of millions of dollars from Bloomberg and his pals. But the Northwest isn’t the only place the anti-gun ratchet has been turning. Illinois, where Chicago and its massive crime problem has long driven anti-gun efforts, is looking at statewide burdensome regulations on licensed dealers. New Mexico, and Nevada have also jumped on the gun control bandwagon with increasingly restrictive laws and legislative proposals.
Second Amendment Sanctuary Zones
In response, sheriffs, county commissioners, and city councils around the country have started passing “Second Amendment Sanctuary” resolutions, and declaring their intent to ignore and not enforce laws that violate the right to arms.
Unlike the “Sanctuary” designation adopted by cities, counties, and even states in opposition to enforcement of federal immigration laws, the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement isn’t pushing a local agenda over federal enforcement, but rather they are standing up for the supreme law of the land – the U.S. Constitution – over state laws that infringe on enumerated rights.
One of my favorite political commentators, Bill Whittle, recently voiced concern about the 2A Sanctuary movement on one of his Bill Whittle Now programs on YouTube.
His objection was that by using the “sanctuary” model, he feels that activists are falling into a trap by failing to take the fight to its source – the state legislature – to fix the problem, rather than be isolated and slowly walled off in smaller and smaller “rights enclaves.”
I would agree with him, if establishing small “freedom zones” were the final objective of the movement, but it’s not.
The 2A Sanctuary movement is not a final objective, but rather a tactic in the larger fight. The cities, towns, and counties take these positions, not as barricades to hide behind, but rather as declarations of war against their over-reaching legislators. They are rally points for lovers of freedom, where they can make plans for taking back their state legislatures and restoring the rule of the Constitution.
When an individual citizen stands up and declares “I will not comply” with laws they consider unconstitutional, that one small voice can be easily silenced. When many citizens band together and make the same declaration, they are a much louder voice that is much harder to silence. But when elected officials within a jurisdiction stand together with their fellow citizens and make the declaration on behalf of their constituents – and presumably with the support and approval of those constituents – it is a revolutionary statement that cannot be squelched or silenced. If these local politicians are indeed supported by their constituents, they will be reelected or elected to higher office, and the politicians who have pushed the unconstitutional laws will be turned out for their traitorous actions.
There’s no question that accepting unconstitutional laws as valid within the state, but not in some narrow jurisdiction, would be a serious mistake. Accepting evil for others, as long as rights are protected for me, is never acceptable. Drawing a line in the sand and declaring that creeping criminality shall not be tolerated beyond that line, and then pushing the line outward to encompass the entire state and nation, is exactly the right thing to do and is a noble effort. These local politicians – county board members, sheriffs, mayors and city council members, – are putting their careers, and in some cases their personal liberty, on the line in defense of what’s right, and they are leading the charge to rectify the wrong.
Nanny-state elitists and the sheeple who follow them in their high-rise apartment buildings and gated communities in Chicago, Seattle, Portland, and Las Vegas, must be turned out of office and their radical, anti-rights ideas rejected. That will only happen when large numbers of voters from across the states and nation stand up and take action – calling, writing, marching, and most importantly VOTING.
This is a war for liberty, and there is no neutral ground nor room for complacency. There is also no room for hiding behind “sanctuary” walls. The wrong must be thrown out and the right must prevail, and that is going to require active engagement on the part of all right-thinking Americans. We all must be willing to work toward better solutions, even when our options are limited and imperfect.
If you’re not familiar with Bill Whittle’s Firewall and Afterburner series, and his more recent Right Angel and Bill Whittle Now programs on YouTube, I highly recommend you check them out at BillWhittle.com
About Jeff Knox:
Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father Neal Knox led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition has offices in Buckeye, Arizona and Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.
There is an important weapon in the fight to protect our 2nd Admendment rights. Jury Nullification. It’s a weapon that does not require you to depend on an elected official, but only that your brothers and sisters recognize they have the power in the jury box to nullify any law that violates your constitutional rights. We need to educate people to not shrug their duty to sit on a jury but to stand instead and say to the government you must prove your case. As a juror it’s not your duty to sit in court without bias, on the contrary.… Read more »
These examples of Big Cities forcing their will upon smaller rural communities is a great example of why we have the electoral college. Just think California and New York, instead of Seattle and Spokane.
First things first. We are not dealing with liberals here. We are dealing with a toxic mix of leftists. Negotiating with these people is pointless because they do not acknowledge your right to exist much less your enumerated rights. Have you ever taken notice of the fact that every totalitarian movement in the 20th and 21st centuries were lead exclusively by university educated “elites?” Pol Pot and his crew in Cambodia are a prime example. All educated at the finest French universities, many with doctorates, and like their totalitarian forefathers in Hitler, Stalin, Mao Kim et al they became the… Read more »
Responsible gun owners embrace gun safety legislation which is proven to save lives and reduce gun violence. A universal background check, which is opposed by the NRA is just one such law. The NRA likes to claim that gun safety means guns will be banned. This all or nothing fallacy pits the NRA against efforts to reduce America’s gun violence epidemic and reveals that the NRA is indeed a gun lobby sales and marketing organization dedicated to keeping the gun and ammo marketplace as broad and expansive as possible for its real backers, the gun and ammo industry. There are… Read more »
Next flight to Canada departs in 10 minutes. You won’t be missed. Buh-bye!
Based on your thinking that makes the Demon cratic party an anti Gun and Ammo marketing agency also ! Dedicated to removing 2 amendment rights from citizens . One Bill at a time .Step by step State by State. All the while protecting politicians right to protect theirselfs & their family directly or via the use of armed guards. There is no such thing as responsible gun legislation. The end game is total confiscation of fire arms little by little . Just as it has happened in other countries . There is no such thing as give a little ,… Read more »
If it weren’t for the lies, misinformation and expert troll tactics, you wouldn’t have an argument. Lies, repeated enough, becomes truth. Figures lie and liars figure. There is a fundamental truth about guns in America that the freedom haters can’t bury in lies. An armed citizenry will never be unwillingly forced into railroad boxcars at gunpoint. Cuba is a gun free worker’s paradise, obviously because they are unarmed, why don’t you move there? You’re wasting you words on this site, by the way.
You obviously only read the bullet points put out by the anti-gun, gun control socialists. Even that crowd has concluded through their own paid for study that Universal Background checks has NO bearing on “gun violence”. One of the many dem/liberal/progressive/socialist mouth pieces Steny Hoyer left the floor to say to the media “We know this will have no effect on gun violence, but we had to do something”!!! So stuff your BS, 100 million own weapons there is only 5 million NRA members, 3% of us carry, and now 32% of States are Constitutional Carry. Not to mention 2A… Read more »
@ och: I loved the way you said, “Blah, blah, blah.” What really convinced me was when you followed up with, “Yada, yada, yada.”
Actually, SF Brains, America is way down the list for all kinds of violent murder on a world wide basis. As an example take the civilized countr6 of Brazil. The6 have a murder ra5e with Firearms tha5 is off the scale. That’s why their new President has promised to loosen their draconian firearms laws!
Take as another example Venisuala. The people *a=e up their firearms. Now, The6 are starving and being murdered by their own government!
Thank you but no thank you! I’ll keep my guns, Asshat!
Crapweasel, Hit the bricks you paid shill.
Repeating the lies and misrepresentations of those that brainwash you, and your flock of sheeple. Do your own research, and when you find out they’ve been lying to you, drop them and join the educated and those who grasp the concept of historical context. Not holding my breath, though. You’ll find out that you’re being manipulated, and still defend your handlers.
Are you trying to say something here? Because all I hear is a person going full retard. If you don’t like our freedoms?
Get the f out of town. And take your foriegn battery car with you
NOT ONE of these organisations is truly about ending “gun violance”. they are ALL about disarming, eventually. For one, there IS NO GUN VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC in America. Nor even a “mass public shooting” epidemic. The press have made it seem so, but CDC and FBI stats prove otherwise. Even when all the gang shootings in democrat stronghold cities like Chucago, Balimore, etc, are included, gun deaths are steadily declining on a per capita basis, since BEFORE the Brady bill and other national gun control bills. Universal backgorund checks can ONLY work when ALL guns are registered.. and we’ve ALL seen… Read more »
“… proven (to save lives and reduce gun violence)?” Proven?? By whom and when?
Not a single one of those ridiculous, lying organizations that you listed has “proven” anything… except that they cannot be trusted, in any way, to tell the truth.
If any of you remember a couple of days ago Och Wil claimed to be a Marine Major as a seasoned combat officer. Every time he posts it becomes more obvious that he is purely a troll trying to make a few bucks from getting us to comment on his ridiculous posts. He should know his references are all leftist gun grabbers but they supply him with the lies he needs to tell. There has been others come on here and pester like he does and after being ignored repedietly the go away. Rather than say he is a Major… Read more »
tomcat, in a post on another story, Wild Bill used the term F6, it is a measurement of the reliability of the person and his/her veracity. Based on that scale, och will is an E6. All we need to post in rebuttal to him is E6 – basically meaning he is a liar and his statements are false.
Man, I sure hope this isn’t another case of stolen valor, falsification, a lie. To a true Marine, and wounded warrior at that, this would not stand. Masquerading as a Marine combat veteran has gotten some poor fools in deep dung, to be polite. We tend to find them, in fact.
Being here in Washington, in a County that the Sheriff is standing up, I have a fairly clear perspective on this issue. Here’s the thing, if we don’t create these sanctuaries, they will have effectively disarmed everyone before we can vote them out. Now, to that voting issue. Here in Washington they set up the Referendum and Voting by mail ballot. Majority rule always leads to; No political accountability, mob rules, and ultimately it gets corrupted in some manner or the other. Here in WA one only needs a drivers license/ State ID to vote. You can see where that… Read more »
ALL lawful means to holding onto our 2A Rights are acceptable, but I understand the concerns of some of our 2A brethren. To them I would exhort them to hold fast to that which is true. OUR RIGHTS PREDATE THE DECLARATION OF INDEPEDENCE, and as such need no mandate. Should domestic enemies choose to ignore the law of the land in terms of “enforcing” the ‘law’ of the land, then it is well that we ignore their demands to adhere to the law of the land in obeying their unconstitutional edicts. For in obeying the one we do not honor… Read more »
Calling, writing, marching and voting has gotten us where we are today with the liberals controlling Washington, the oppressive Federal LEOs, the constant restrictions on Constitutional rights and the so-called gun rights wimps calling for more of the same. Action is needed and that is what the 2nd Amendment sanctuary movement is all about; ACTION. Refusal to obey, resistance, action, not just claptrap and impotent rhetoric. This is spreading across the states and is the result of the failure of “playing by the rules” and anyone who insists on following the same losing path is either blind or has an… Read more »