A County in Illinois County Becomes a Sanctuary for Gun Owners

You’ve heard about “sanctuary cities?”  These are places where their policy makers have decided — federal laws be damned — they’re going to do exactly what they want regarding illegal immigrants.  Well, a county in Illinois has taken that idea and run with it.  But, there’s a twist: they want to be a sanctuary for people who own firearms.  The Independent Journal Review reports:

According to the Associated Press, the Effingham County Board passed a resolutionon an 8-1 vote Monday to agree not to enforce new Illinois laws that “unconstitutionally restrict the Second Amendment.” Bryan Kibler, the county’s attorney, told the Effingham Daily News that the resolution is mostly symbolic and will not impact decisions made at the sheriff’s office.

If an unconstitutional law was passed, Sheriff Dave Mahon said he’d have to consider all of the implications before proceeding.  First, he’d talk to the Illinois Sheriff’s Association and state’s attorney, then he’d try to make a decision that respected the gun owners of his county.  Whether or not this is symbolic will be seen when the rubber meets the road.  But it’s gratifying to see a county sheriff taking the Constitution seriously.

Here are the sorts of regulations to which this Illinois county might object, from Independent Journal Review:

Deerfield Village in Illinois recently voted to ban all semi-automatic guns, including pistols and shotguns with “certain features,” as well as anything larger than a 10-round magazine. The village told its residents that if they did not turn in their banned weapons, it could result in a fine as high as $1,000 per day.

This reminds me of the slogan popularized by the National Rifle Association on a series of bumper stickers back in the 1980s. “I’ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.”  If I know gun owners (and I do, since I am one), I bet precisely zero people actually turned in their weapons.  And I don’t blame them.

While I commend this Illinois county for taking a stand, I’ve got one question for the rest of America: shouldn’t the entire nation be a sanctuary to protect us from unconstitutional regulations?

Hat Tip: IJR.com

Image Credit: Flickr account m01229