Bellingham, Wash –-(Ammoland.com)- With the rise of COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) cases across the country many cities, states, and even the federal government has been passing measures to help their citizens in their time of need. Even bitter political enemies have put aside their vast differences to do what is right for the country. Democratic Socialist Rep Ilhan Omar even praised Trump for his “incredible and the right response” to the virus outbreak.
Where some people have put aside their political differences for the good of the country, others have used the crisis of our time to push their anti-gun agenda under the smokescreen of fighting the virus. One of the hardest-hit states by the virus is Washington. Seattle is the West Coast ground zero of the COVID-19 outbreak.
An hour and a half north of Seattle is the city of Bellingham there is a proposed “emergency” ordinance to deal with the novel coronavirus. The proposal will give Democrat Mayor Kelli Linville the unprecedented authority to restrict city resident’s right to bear arms.
The proposal would allow the mayor to issue an order “requiring the discontinuance of the sale, distribution, or giving away of firearms and/or ammunition for firearms in any or all parts of the city.”
The ordinance will give the mayor the power to order gun stores to immediately shut down until she deems the crisis over. She will also be able to order stores that are not primarily a gun store to remove firearms and ammunition from their shelves. The decision of which stores that law enforcement would shut down would be the mayor’s call.
Since the once in a lifetime pandemic hit the shores of the country, gun and ammunition sales have exploded in every corner of the US. A large portion of these sales is to first-time gun owners. It appears that people are now waking up to need to take responsibility for their own safety. A lot of these new gun owners used to be in the anti-gun crowd.
The ordinance gives the mayor the authority to directly violate the Constitutional rights of the citizens of the city. She will also be able to ban the carrying of firearms within the city limits. Of course, police officers will be exempt from the ordinance.
The ordinance deems the restrictions as “necessary to protect public health and safety.”
Mayor Linville isn’t the first government official to try to use the novel coronavirus as an excuse to remove people’s right to bear arms. Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen of Champaign, Illinois has granted herself the power to ban guns.
Mayor Feinen says she always had the power to ban firearms and other things like alcohol in emergencies. She stated the ordinance is just enumerating her right to violate other people’s rights. She said it is to “protect the welfare and safety of our community if needed.”
New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell also jumped on the anti-gun bandwagon. She used the COVID-19 outbreak to issue an executive order to grant herself the power to ban the sale of guns.
The Mayors in question say these ordinances are not about banning firearms. That raises the question if they are not about banning guns and the sale of firearms, then why include those powers in the ordinances?
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.
Nope. Mayors, governors, etc have no authority to ban Federal Constitutionally-protected rights. Nobody does. Just because they think and say they can doesn’t make it true, and the people have very right to simply ignore this nonsense. Besides, how hard is it to go to the next town anyway to buy guns and ammo? WTF do these imbecile mayors think they are solving, other than proving to their constituents they are nothing more than power-hungry fascist dictators?
Sorry byatch, preemption law in WA state prohibits just exactly the kind of lunacy that you envision.
Idiot liberals have ruined Washington state and continue their race to the bottom.
This is what happens when nine gazillion liberal, socialist Democrat Party “citizens” leave their screwed up state over the last ten years and then like Covid 19 invade and contaminate another state with their insane politics “forgetting” why they left their last mess. They just cannot help themselves, liberalism is a true mental disease–here they come Utah, Idaho, Montana, Arizona and Texas; they already killed Colorado.
In 1968 the gun control act was enacted and since then it has been a systematic attack on our 2nd amendment rights. I truly believe that there is not one politician that truly believes in the 2nd amendment. And this is just another example
“Bellingham WA to Give Mayor Power to Ban Sale And Carrying of Guns”. What you are really saying is ‘The cowardly Americans in the Washington city of Bellingham will kneel to the tyrant and tolerate unconstitutional actions’. NO politician has ANY power to do ANYTHING to control, regulate or ban firearms. The ONLY REASON gun control laws work, is because Americans are screaming yellow cowards and kneel to the tyrant. Rights are just too costly to defend they say. Standing up for Rights is so much effort, besides, bassetball is on and they got beer to drink…. Once, the Americans… Read more »
In these jurisdictions it is vital that, before these wannabe tyrants actually exercise that supposed “authority”, they be sued, taken immediately to court, and have a ruling against that portion of the executive order.
I’m not sure of the state laws in Washington allow a mayor to supercede a state law that prohibits this type of action . Also happened in Illinois Sadly elected officials are using the COVID -19 as an excuse. Here in NJ, our “proudly progressive” governor deemed that gun stores are non essential and will be closed, no ammo or NICS for purchases. This was on our local news today, the NJ Attorney general and Colonel of NJSP were also at this conference. A question was asked by a pro gin person to Murphy and he briefly answered the question… Read more »
Mr Mayor, make sure you are walking down the street during a riot, unarmed with your fellow citizens you have disarmed.
Sue them for a breach of civil rights 100% totally Unconstitutional no one Can deprive you from purchasing a firearm and less you’re a criminal or otherwise prohibited.
Democratic Socialists supported by Bloomberg money are employing a piece meal, state legislature by state legislature strategy. Actively support your state level most pro-2A organizations, especially those heavily engaged in lobbying at your state legislature. First and foremost, defend your home turf. Don’t dig in. Go on the offensive. Don’t depend on any national organization to come to the rescue. “Neither the state nor any county, city, etc. can grab your guns by declaring an emergency. Back in 2007, AZCDL was instrumental in the passage of a Senate bill that added a new section to the statutes regarding emergency powers.”… Read more »