Posted at 5:30 pm on January 15, 2021 by Cam Edwards
The Second Amendment Sanctuary movement began in earnest in 2018, when a number of counties in Illinois followed the lead of rural Effingham County in passing a resolution that stated no county funds would be used to enforce unconstitutional gun control laws. Since then the movement has grown to well over 500 localities in more than 20 states, and I’m predicting that once Joe Biden office and begins pushing his gun control agenda, we’re going to see hundreds more follow suit. The movement is getting bigger in another way, however. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has come out in support of making the entire state a Second Amendment Sanctuary.
Abbott endorsed the idea at a forum hosted by the Texas Public Policy Coalition on Thursday night, naming it one of his top legislative priorities this year. Given the outsized role that Texas plays in Republican politics as well as in the hearts of conservatives across the country, Abbott just jumpstarted a conversation about state-level Second Amendment Sanctuary language that I suspect will lead to other governors and lawmakers outside of Texas embracing the idea. Even before Abbott had given his approval for the idea, Oklahoma State Sen. Nathan Dahm had filed legislation that would make the Sooner State a Second Amendment Sanctuary. I can’t imagine that Oklahoma lawmakers are going to let Texas lay claim to the title first, and I could see several states move to adopt similar language in the very near future. The Left likes to claim that these declarations are meaningless, though they seem to have a big issue with something that supposedly doesn’t matter. Here’s Mary McCord, legal director of Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, in the Washington Post last January, as the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement was catching fire in Virginia.
Proponents of Second Amendment sanctuary cities and counties largely ignore the teaching of Heller, instead pronouncing any gun-control legislation unconstitutional, whether it requires backgrounds checks or a waiting period, raises the legal age for gun ownership, bans bump-stock devices that allow for rapid firing, prohibits weapons in government buildings, or outlaws assault-style rifles. Rather than engaging in a bill-by-bill discussion of proposed legislation, these advocates whip up hysteria by painting with a broad brush, arguing that all gun-control legislation is part of a conspiracy of liberals who want to take your guns. Using this disingenuous logic, proponents have convinced cities and counties in Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Illinois, Colorado, Florida, Virginia and elsewhere that they should resist laws enacted by duly-elected legislators upon their own declarations, not those of the courts, that such laws violate the Second Amendment. This not only misunderstands the Second Amendment, but it also misunderstands the limited powers of local jurisdictions, which exist solely based on authorities conferred by state law. State constitutions, statutes and common law generally affirm the supremacy of federal and state law, meaning that local jurisdictions are preempted from enacting conflicting ordinances and resolutions. And in no state do local governments have the prerogative to declare a state or federal law unconstitutional without involving the courts.