Showdown Looms as Dem’s Gun Control Agenda Likely to Meet Stiff Opposition From Nation’s Sheriffs Who Say They Will Not Enforce Unconstitutional Laws
President Biden’s recent remarks on the three-year anniversary of the Parkland, Florida shooting that saw a gunman kill 17 students and wound another 17, was seen by gun rights advocates as the administration’s first salvo in what is expected to be a fierce and prolonged battle over Second Amendment rights in America. “I am calling on Congress to enact common sense gun law reforms,” said Biden, “including requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets.”
“President Biden’s demand that Congress ban the modern sporting rifle (MSR), which he knowingly mislabels as an ‘assault rifle’ and ‘weapon of war,’ denies the reality that more murders are committed with knives, fists and clubs than all rifles combined,” responded the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s influential advocacy arm. “Over 20 million MSR’s are in circulation today, used daily for lawful purposes. And rolling back protections on lawful manufacturers of firearms would be akin to allowing activist lawyers to sue Ford for the wrongful deaths caused by drunk drivers.”
At a March 2, 2020, rally in Texas then candidate Joe Biden suggested Beto O’Rourke would be his pick to lead his gun control efforts. “You’re gonna be the one who leads this effort,” said Biden of O’Rourke, “I’m counting on you.” SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES
Biden Aims to Ban Modern Sporting Rifle Commonly Used for Hunting
MSR’s are most commonly used for hunting, recreational target shooting and for personal protection. As a practical matter, these are semi-automatic firearms, which means you must squeeze the trigger every time you want to fire a single round (the sale of fully automatic weapons was banned in 1986 as part of the Firearm Owners Protection Act). That functionality is no different than hundreds of other semi-automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns used for everything from duck and dove to deer and boar hunting as well as target shooting and self-defense. Most U.S. soldiers, on the other hand, are issued fully automatic M4 Carbines capable of shooting 950 rounds per minute (press the trigger and the bullets keep flying), so while they may look like MSR’s, a military relegated to using semi-automatic rifles would be at a decided disadvantage in any modern warfare scenario.
Gun control rhetoric from Dems is nothing new, but by holding slim majorities in the House and Senate and with Biden in the White House, they’re feeling emboldened that now is the time to move on a wide variety of gun control measures that had heretofore been stymied by a gun-friendly Trump administration and Republican majorities in at least one of two legislative bodies.
Mostly missing in the national political debate over guns, however, is where law enforcement stands regarding their willingness to enforce proposed or newly enacted gun laws. As Colorado legislators discovered in 2019 and 2020 when “red flag” legislation passed—designed to allow police to seize guns from people suspected of posing a significant danger to themselves or others—laws are meaningless without enforcement.
Sheriffs Proclaim Gun Control Bill Unconstitutional
Dozens of the state’s 64 sheriffs publicly proclaimed the bill unconstitutional and refused to enforce the new law, with roughly half of the state’s county governments passing resolutions stating that they do not support enforcing such laws or will not, “infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms,” as one county board phrased it.
Sheriff Steve Reams of Colorado’s rural Weld County became one of the leading voices opposing the legislation and he made the rounds on the national news talk-show circuit to share his sentiments. “If a judge issues an order saying a person can’t possess weapons, and also compels law enforcement to perform a search warrant to seek out those guns,” said Reams, “I believe that’s a violation of a person’s constitutional rights. I have a hard choice at that point. I can potentially violate someone’s constitutional rights. Or I can violate a court order. I would rather be on the side of violating a court order than someone’s rights.”
Red Flag Gun Control Laws are a Red Flag
At the center of gun rights advocates’ concerns regarding red flag laws is the lack of meaningful due process. “What if a disgruntled ex-lover has a vendetta against their former significant other and wants to use these laws as retaliation?” asks George Brauchler, former District Attorney for Colorado’s Douglas, Arapahoe, Elbert and Lincoln counties, who narrowly lost a bid to become the state’s Attorney General and who has prosecuted some of the nation’s most notorious mass shootings, including the Columbine High School and Aurora Theater massacres. “We expect our justice system to make an abuse of our laws nearly impossible to achieve. Many of these red flag laws do not. A person unfairly targeted by someone using a red flag law isn’t given a fair chance to defend themselves in the court of law before a judge can call for the confiscation of their firearms. There is more due process protecting your privilege to drive than your right to bear arms.”
Former Douglas County, Colorado, District Attorney George Brauchler questions the lack of meaningful due process with the state’s red flag laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others. “There is more due process protecting your privilege to drive than your right to bear arms,” he says. GETTY IMAGES
While 19 states—mostly Democrat controlled— and the District of Columbia have some form of red-flag laws on the books, there are more than 400 sheriffs across the country who consider themselves part of a group labelled the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a group representing thousands of deputies nationwide. Many of them have gone on-record saying that they will not enforce laws that they view as unconstitutional.
Larimer County Colorado sheriff Justin Smith is one of them. Smith didn’t hesitate to share his views on his Facebook page in an article he titled, “Preserving our Constitutional Republic.” In it he wrote, “…the Sheriff’s duties include the absolute obligation to protect the rights of the citizens of the county, and the Sheriff is accountable directly to those citizens. The Colorado Sheriff occupies this independent office which is not a subservient department of the county, state or federal government….I will not enforce unconstitutional federal laws, obey unconstitutional laws or allow others to violate the constitutional rights of those in my county.”
It’s About More Than Just Gun Control
Smith sees his stance as broader than the Second Amendment, however: “We must understand that while we are talking about the right to keep and bear arms today, we could just as easily be talking about the right to lawfully assemble and petition our government, the right to free speech, the right to worship freely, the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure or any of our other rights. They are all to be defended without fail.”
As the gun control debate heats up, one thing is clear: Americans are exercising their right to keep and bear arms at unprecedented levels. While 2019 was seen as an extraordinary year for gun sales with more than 28 million FBI National Instant Criminal Background Checks (required to purchase a new firearm and a good barometer of overall gun sales), 2020 saw an incredible nearly 40 million NICS checks. According to the NSSF, there are now more than 150 million gun owners in America with nearly 450 million firearms in circulation. That’s roughly 75 times the size of the Chinese, US and Russian armies…combined.
“As elected officials and law enforcement officers,” says Larry Keane, counsel for the NSSF, “Sheriffs take an oath to defend the constitution. That oath extends to the Second Amendment which the Supreme Court held applies to the States and local government. Sheriffs have a legal obligation not to enforce laws that blatantly violate the Second Amendment.”
Stiff Opposition From Nation’s Law Enforcement Officials
While many Democrats favoring more gun restrictions—including mandatory gun buy-backs, a federal gun registry, bans on MSRs, waiting periods and the like—are eager to advance sweeping new gun laws, passage of any such laws will likely face stiff opposition from many of the nation’s law enforcement officials. Their interpretation of the Second Amendment may ultimately wind up in the Supreme Court again where the constitutionality of red-flag and other emerging gun laws will likely be tested.
For Smith and others in the sheriff’s community, they welcome the Supreme Court’s involvement. “The current makeup of the court suggests that this is a good time to test remaining challenges to the Second Amendment,” he says. “In my experience, Democrats often misjudge the Second Amendment as a partisan issue. In my county, there are a lot of Independents, Libertarians and even Democrats who are strong Second Amendment advocates. And when you see cities on fire and urban crime rates soaring how do you think those folks—many of them minorities—feel about the right to defend themselves? I think the Biden Administration and other Democrats are misreading the prevailing sentiment on this issue.”
And whether through the mid-term elections or future Supreme Court rulings, we’re likely to soon find out who is reading the judicial and political winds correctly.
This article originally appeared in Forbes. Follow Sporting Classics TV host Chris Dorsey at Forbes.
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