(Daily Signal) – Nearly a month
after a tragic mass shooting shook Umpqua Community College, a rural Oregon
county roughly two hours west of the school passed a measure directing the
sheriff to bypass state and federal gun laws if he judges them
unconstitutional.
Coos County residents smoothly
approved the Second Amendment Preservation Ordinance Tuesday with more
than 60 percent voting for its passage. The ordinance bars
public employees from using county funds to enforce any laws the sheriff deems
unconstitutional.
It also prohibits enforcement of
Oregon’s recent law requiring background checks on private gun
transfers, including transactions between friends. County employees who violate
the measure could face a $2,000 fine.
Rob Taylor, a retired optician who
sponsored the measure, said the residents he spoke to while helping collect
nearly 2,000 signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot were
“thrilled” about it.
“We are a big gun ownership area.
Coos County has the highest percentage of concealed carry licenses in the
entire state,” Taylor told The Daily Signal. “They’re tired of having their
rights eroded, and not just under the Second Amendment, all of their rights, so
they were thrilled that somebody was trying to do something about it.”
The National Rifle Association said
the measure’s passage reflected a uniform sentiment among gun owners in the
U.S. “The ordinance passed in Coos County
is a sign of the frustration law-abiding gun owners are feeling all across the
country.” NRA spokesman Lars Dalseide told The Daily Signal.
But many are questioning its
legality. Coos County Sheriff Craig Zanni, who is now tasked with deciding
which gun laws are in line with the Constitution, told the
Oregonian last month that while he is a strong gun rights advocate, he had
concerns about whether he had the authority to make those decisions. “I’m not
sure the courts would agree with that concept,” he said. “I would just bet
there would be some legal challenges to it.”
Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal
fellow at The Heritage Foundation, said the Supremacy Clause in the
Constitution leaves “no question that federal law trumps state law” and that
any sheriff who violates a state law requirement could run into legal issues. “On the other hand, while federal
law can override state and local laws, the federal government cannot force
local officials to enforce federal law,” he noted.
Andrew Kloster, also a legal fellow
at Heritage, added that while the sheriff is an “agent of the state” and has to
abide by Oregon law, if the state passed a law that requires its officials,
including the sheriff, to violate the Second Amendment, individual citizens
could pursue a lawsuit or he could resign from his job.
Taylor said a court challenge is
exactly the point. “One of the reasons we enacted this
measure is that we wanted to challenge [the state’s] background check law
through the judicial process,” he said. “The problem is we’re just average
citizens, we don’t have a lot of money so we can’t just take these challenges
to court. Lawyers cost a lot of money and court fees cost a lot of money.”
He said Oregon’s “liberal”
initiative laws enabled him to put the measure on a ballot, which he hopes will
ultimately allow residents frustrated with the state’s new background check law
to avoid an individual court challenge.
“We’ve put it in the realm of being
an actual ordinance so that one government entity will have to challenge
another government entity without forcing individuals to have to pay for it by
themselves.”
http://dailysignal.com/2015/11/06/oregon-county-passes-initiative-allowing-sheriff-to-void-gun-control-laws-if-he-thinks-theyre-unconstitutional/
http://www.teaparty.org/sheriff-okd-void-unconstitutional-gun-laws-128468/
Comment
The Bill
of Rights and the US Constitution and amendments (as written) actually trump
Supreme Court Opinions and unconstitutional laws. Clearly the 2nd Amendment trumps
any other laws.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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