Grant County officials opted not to become a ‘Second Amendment sanctuary’ after citizens urged the commissioners to join a growing trend across the country.
Instead, the commissioners expressed support for gun owners’ rights and passed a resolution regarding the Constitutional amendment at its regular meeting Monday.
Commissioner Ron Mowery said he has had a number of county residents talk with him about Second Amendment rights to bear arms in recent weeks, with his belief that much of the conversation stems from a recent gun rights rally in Richmond, Virginia.
“It’s really something that’s catching on or becoming quite a news and public sentiment around the nation,” he said.
According to the Associated Press, more than 100 cities, towns and counties in Virginia as well as communities in Illinois, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Florida have declared themselves Second Amendment Sanctuaries since last year. Sanctuary communities have passed legislation stating intentions that they would oppose “unconstitutional restrictions” on the right to bear arms and not use government funds or personnel to enforce gun regulations, the Associated Press reports.
Mowery said county resident Stephen Deeter and others specifically requested that commissioners declare Grant County a Second Amendment Sanctuary and provided commissioners with a proposed ordinance to adopt.
The proposed ordinance in part states no county employee should participate in enforcement of an “unlawful act” regarding personal firearms or use any county funds that aids in enforcement of unlawful firearm acts.
Unlawful acts are detailed in the ordinance as federal or state law that “bans, registers or effectively registers, or limits the lawful use of firearms,” including taxes on firearms, confiscation of firearms or ammunition, restrictions on bump stocks and magazine capacity and more.
County officials who violate the ordinance would be subject to a civil Class A violation with a maximum fine of $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for a corporation, according to the proposed ordinance.
Mowery said commissioners looked over the ordinance and sent it to their attorney Kyle Persinger for further review. Rather than passing the ordinance, Persinger drafted and recommended passing a resolution in support of gun owners’ rights, which was passed unanimously on Monday.
“The Commissioners hereby express its continued commitment to support all provisions of the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Indiana, including the right of the people to keep and bear arms,” the resolution states. “The Commissioners hereby express its strong support for the rights of law-abiding Grant County citizens to keep and bear arms.”
Mowery said he does not anticipate further discussion or possible passage of the proposed sanctuary ordinance for the foreseeable future.
“I believe there was some concern with some of the people interacting with me that we should move on to an ordinance, but there again the three of us along with our attorney thought that this would suffice, that it would address their concerns and protect our citizens of Grant County,” Mowery said.
Commissioner Mark Bardsley said the resolution could potentially work as a first step for further action.
“Should there be a need to move further on, that would be an option for the commissioners if we wanted to address the total embracing of a sanctuary county as well,” he said.
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