미등록전국 및 주 차원서 '총기 규제' 확대 움직임...지자체들 "헌법적 권리 지키겠다"고 맞서 [팩트매터]

For a very long time now, there have been two competing trends in this country. At the federal level, as well as many state levels, there has been a push towards more centralization, the introduction of more levels of bureaucracy and the accompanying red tape, as well as more attempts to chip away at the Second Amendment. However, at the very same time, you have local levels, many municipalities across the country, moving in the exact opposite direction, declaring themselves to be either constitutional sanctuaries or Second Amendment sanctuaries, and making it such that any effort to infringe on the constitutional rights of those citizens will be treated as criminal activity, even if it's done by either federal or state level officials. Case in point, a week ago, lawmakers over in Indian River County, Florida, which is a conservative leading county in the eastern part of the state, they unanimously voted to join this movement, and they declared themselves to be a constitutional sanctuary. What that means in practice is that they will protect the rights that are enshrined in both the U.S. Constitution, as well as in the Bill of Rights. We firmly resolve and protect the Constitution of the United States of America because we have to fight against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, and to resist any intrusions and the sacred rights to protect the United States of America's Constitution. Then speaking to a local news outlet, you had Sheriff Eric Flowers lay out why going constitutional was a necessary step for Indian River County. We stand by the Constitution. We stand by the guiding principles of our forefathers. I feel like recognizing that versus other places who seem to be going in the complete opposite direction, parts of California, parts of New York that are doing things that we believe to be unconstitutional. The simplest example to give people is the Second Amendment. If the U.S. government decided that they were going to collect up weapons, there's no way in Indian River County that we're going to do that. As a constitutional sheriff, I believe that that's my job to protect that and protect that right, and I'll always do that for our citizens. And it's worth mentioning that Indian River County is not alone. Going constitutional appears to be somewhat of a new trend for local conservative counties to take. For instance, last year, by a vote of nine to one, the County Board of Commissioners for Ottawa County over in Michigan, they also chose to take the step and to go constitutional. In doing so, quote, the board has now resolved to not use any funds or resources on enforcing any law or rule that restricts the rights of any law-abiding citizen affirmed by the United States Constitution, or to aid any state or federal agency infringing or restricting those rights. And again, this is not a standalone. This is a trend we're beginning to see more and more of. For instance, before Ottawa County, the lawmakers over in Cattaraugus County, which is a conservative county in the Western part of New York State, they voted unanimously to likewise become a constitutional sanctuary. Specifically, under the piece of legislation that they passed, Cattaraugus County declared itself to be, quote, constitutional county, unwavering in its commitment to protect the constitutional rights of its citizens. Furthermore, this county's legislature, they vowed to use, quote, all legal means at its disposal to oppose unconstitutional efforts to infringe on the rights of the citizens, whether those attacks come from the federal or the state level. And among several other elements, the measure which was passed, it declares that no county employees, no public money, no public resources, and no public buildings will be used to either infringe on the rights of the citizens, nor will they be used to help other levels of government to enforce unconstitutional restrictions. Now, at the time that they did this, one of our reporters here at the Epoch Times, he was actually able to speak with one of the lawmakers over in this county. It was Ms. Ginger Schroeder. She was the one who actually drafted and pushed the resolution forward. And here's what she told us here at the Epoch Times, quote, if the state or federal government continue to overstep their bounds and intrude into the lives of our citizens with unconstitutional mandates, our legislature will step up and challenge that. Ms. Schroeder then further told us that the constituents in her county, they were becoming fed up with what they viewed as increasingly extreme violations of the constitution that were coming from both Albany, which is the state capital of New York, as well as from Washington, D.C. And as an example of what she meant by that, she said that during the pandemic, the courts have, quote, allowed all power to be assumed by an autocrat at that time, meaning Governor Andrew Cuomo, and not a benign autocrat. It was devastating to our community, and that's why we decided we simply had to do something about this. I'm even willing to engage in civil disobedience. Sometimes you have to stand up to the government. That's what our forefathers did. If there's an unconstitutional mandate that comes down, I may choose not to comply with that, and I've encouraged others to do so as well. Now, aside from just her, according to multiple other lawmakers from this county that we here at the Epoch Times were able to speak with, they said that the concern of escalating infringement against gun rights, specifically, was a primary motive behind passing this measure. And in fact, the resolution itself makes that point pretty clear. Here's specifically what it says in part. Quote, The Cattaraugus County Legislature wishes to express its profound commitment to the rights of all citizens of Cattaraugus County to keep and bear arms and proclaim that it is determined to stand as a constitutional county that recognizes, respects, and upholds Second Amendment rights. Additionally, the county lawmakers, they said that they vowed to, quote, use all legal means at its disposal to oppose any efforts to unconstitutionally restrict such rights in order to assure that its citizens will be able to keep in their arms and use the same in defense of life, liberty, and property, whether in a well-regulated militia or individually. And the reasoning that they laid out here is very similar to the reasons that were given by two other counties over in Nevada, which also took this approach. Just for your reference, the two counties in Nevada, which unanimously voted to become constitutional counties, were Elko and Lander counties. And according to the resolutions that they passed, they essentially said something very similar to the other counties, that the local governments, which includes both the commissioners as well as the local sheriffs, they will stand against unconstitutional acts by both state and federal authorities. And in terms of what constitutional rights they're referring to specifically, the resolution which came out of Nevada, well, it was very similar to what came out of both Florida, Michigan, as well as New York. Quote, the people of these United States are, and have a right to be, free and independent, and these rights are derived from the law of nature and nature's God. As such, they must be free from infringement on the right to keep in their arms, unreasonable searches and seizures, capricious detainment, and every other natural right, whether enumerated or not, pursuant to the Ninth Amendment. They then further went on to essentially bring their counties back to first principles and say that they deny any government structure which supersedes either the Bill of Rights and or the U.S. Constitution. Here is what the resolution says in that relevant part. Quote, we maintain that no agency established by the U.S. Congress can develop its own policies or regulations which supersede the Bill of Rights or the Constitution, nor does the executive branch have the power to make law or return law or set aside law. In total, thus far, five counties have taken this step and gone constitutional, which of course does not sound like a lot. However, it's worth mentioning that going constitutional is only one approach of several that local municipalities are using to ensure that the fundamental rights of their citizens are being protected. For instance, alongside this constitutional sanctuary movement is another trend of counties becoming Second Amendment sanctuaries. And this is a giant, much more developed movement given the fact that as of right now, as of 2024, around 70% of U.S. counties are in fact Second Amendment sanctuaries. This means that the majority of all the counties in our country, they have either put into place resolutions, specific pieces of legislation, and or the state that they're in has passed constitutional carry provisions. And this movement is quite broad, spanning the entirety of the country. Up on your screen right now is a map of the whole nation showing which counties haven't placed these protections. And the map, just for your reference, is the best that I could do based on the data that I could find. If your county, the one that you happen to live in, is not properly marked on that map, please do leave a comment in the comment section below. I'll be checking those comments regularly. Regardless though, up on the map, the counties marked in green are those that have passed either Second Amendment resolutions or they have passed legislation declaring themselves to be Second Amendment sanctuaries. The counties marked in blue are the ones that are inside of a state which has passed Second Amendment legislation, like for instance, the state of South Carolina. And those that are marked in purple are the counties that are both inside of a state which passed Second Amendment legislation, but then the county itself also passed Second Amendment legislation. And so the ones in purple you can say are double sanctuary counties. And so, as is quite evident by that map, you have the vast majority of counties across America protected by some form of Second Amendment sanctuary legislation at either the state level or at the county level, or sometimes both. Now, these protections, they come in the form of actual laws in the books, executive proclamations, resolutions, as well as constitutional carry legislation. As an example of what this looks like in practice, up on your screen right now is a proclamation that was issued by the former governor of Nebraska designating his state to be a Second Amendment sanctuary. He said this after signing it, quote, Nebraska has always been a state that has supported our Second Amendment rights. As a symbol of that support, I'm signing a proclamation declaring Nebraska a Second Amendment sanctuary state, and with my signature, it will become official. You also have counties like Elko and Lander over in Nevada, the same ones we mentioned earlier, which passed their own county level resolutions, declaring that the Bill of Rights will be upheld, even if it means standing up against either state or federal level authorities. And that quote, the abuse of the constitutionally protected rights of the citizens will be dealt with as criminal activity. And then, of course, you also have examples like the states of Texas, Ohio, Louisiana, and 26 others, which have put into place a constitutional carry law, which allows the citizens of those states to carry handguns without a license, because the thinking goes that their license is, after all, just the Second Amendment. However, one thing that's not reflected in that map are all the counties where they don't have any legislation or proclamations or resolutions on the books. However, the local sheriffs in those counties, they said that they will not be enforcing infringement on the Second Amendment. For instance, if we look at a map, we'll see that in the state of Utah, only a handful of counties have passed Second Amendment resolutions. However, three years ago, every single sheriff in the whole state of Utah, meaning the sheriff in every single county, they signed a joint letter saying that they will be safeguarding the Second Amendment against all encroachments. Here's part of what that letter said, quote, importantly, the Second Amendment of our divinely inspired constitution clearly states the right of the people to keep in their arms shall not be infringed. We hereby recognize a significant principle underlying the Second Amendment. The right to keep in their arms is indispensable to the existence of a free people. As your elected sheriffs, we individually and collectively pledge to do everything within our power to steadfastly protect the Second Amendment and all other individual rights guaranteed by the constitution. And this resolution signed again by every single sheriff in the state really sort of gets to the crux of the matter because at the tail end of any law that infringes on any right, let's say the Second Amendment right, there has to be a boot on the ground to actually enforce it. Laws don't enforce themselves. At the end of that stick is typically a sheriff or a police officer. However, if every single sheriff just flatly says I will not be enforcing this type of a law, then in practice, that is exactly what a Second Amendment sanctuary is a place where those types of laws and those type of infringements will just not be tolerated. And so that's where we're currently stand amidst the backdrop of national and state level politicians who are looking to expand gun restrictions. There is a counter movement at the local level looking to protect both the Second Amendment as well as many other rights. If you'd like to read about either of these Second Amendment sanctuaries or if you'd like to learn more about these counties going constitutional, I'll throw the links to my research notes. You'll be able to find them down in the description box below, which I should mention is that description box right below those like and subscribe buttons, both of which I hope you take a quick moment to smash so that this information can reach ever more people via the YouTube algorithm. And also after you're done smashing those buttons, I'd love to know your thoughts. Would you be interested in having your own local county become either a constitutional sanctuary and or a Second Amendment sanctuary? Please leave your thoughts in the comments. I'll be reading them later tonight as well as into the week. And until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times. Stay informed. Most importantly, stay free.