Tuesday was a historic day for Camden County, Missouri, as they became the first county in the state to pass a substantive Gun Rights Sanctuary County Ordinance. The ordinance, proposed by Commissioner James Gohagan, passed at approximately 11:15 am and was met with resounding cheers by the room full of concerned citizens.
The ordinance comes one day before the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden. A man with lofty anti-gun goals and ambitions, fueled by extensive donations from notoriously anti 2nd Amendment groups like Mom’s Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety.
His laundry list of anti-gun proposals includes bans on modern-day sporting rifles, such as the AR-15, universal background checks on private sales, and limiting the number of firearms a person can purchase to one per month.
President-Elect Biden, you may as well wad that list up and throw it away when it comes to Camden County, Missouri. Because today, thanks to newly elected Commissioner James Gohagan’s proposed county ordinance and the cooperation from our other two Commissioners, Greg Hasty and Don Williams, the county has reaffirmed the citizens’ rights well as the limitations of the government. You may not commandeer the resources of our local government to enforce your federal gun laws. Period.
The 10th Amendment states that the powers not delegated to the government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the People. Nowhere in the Constitution, is the power delegated to the Federal Government to commandeer the resources of a locality for the enforcement of federal gun laws. The Supreme Court has ruled multiple times in favor of anti-commandeering laws, most notably, Printz v United States in 1997, affirming that counties can not be forced to use their own resources to comply with a federal background check program, and more recently, Chicago v Barr which affirmed that the federal government can not threaten to withhold federal grant money to sanctuary cities.
The left has been using sanctuary laws for years to protect illegal immigrants. It’s time conservatives and Constitutionalists borrowed a play from their playbook and used the same anti-commandeering protections to reaffirm Constitutionally protected rights.
I would strongly encourage anyone reading this to get to work now. Follow Camden County’s lead and work locally to protect your community against the potentially overreaching federal gun legislation that’s sure to come our way in the not too distant future.
Don’t know where to start? I can help with that. Below, you will find the text of the Ordinance from Camden County, should you decide to use it as a template for your county or State.
Now get out there and fight.
Camden County Second Amendment Preservation Act:
All federal acts, laws, orders, rules, and regulations, whether past, present, or future, which infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 23 of the Missouri Constitution shall be invalid in this county, shall not be recognized by this county, are specifically rejected by this county, and shall be considered null and void and of no effect in this county.
(1) Such federal acts, laws, orders, rules, and regulations include, but are not limited to:
(a) The provisions of the federal Gun Control Act of 1934;
(b) The provisions of the federal Gun Control Act of 1968;
(c) Any tax, levy, fee, or stamp imposed on firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition not common to all other goods and services which could have a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items by law-abiding citizens;
(d) Any registering or tracking of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition which could have a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items by law-abiding citizens;
(e) Any registering or tracking of the owners of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition which could have a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items by law-abiding citizens;
(f) Any act forbidding the possession, ownership, or use or transfer of any type of firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition by law-abiding citizens;
(g) Any act ordering the confiscation of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition from law-abiding citizens