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A quarter of Illinois counties have passed “gun sanctuary” resolutions

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Illinois

A “gun sanctuary” trend spreading across Illinois counties in support of Second Amendment rights has raised questions about just who is allowed to decide what is or isn’t constitutional where guns are concerned.

At least 26 of Illinois’ 102 counties have passed “gun sanctuary” resolutions or similar measures. The term is a play on the phrase “sanctuary city,” which describes cities where political and law enforcement leaders limit their cooperation with federal immigration policies and vow to protect immigrant rights.

“Gun sanctuary” advocates say they, too, deserve protection — from lawmakers in the capital pushing for stricter laws on firearms. […]

The 26 counties are: Brown, Christian, Clark, Clay, Cumberland, Douglas, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Greene, Hamilton, Hardin, Henry, Iroquois, Jasper, Jefferson, Lawrence, Monroe, Perry, Pope, Saline, Shelby, Washington, Wayne, White and Woodford. […]

Two counties, Madison and Williamson, plan to send the question to voters on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.

Whatever gets their folks to the polls, I suppose. Madison and Williamson both have targeted legislative and congressional races this year.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 9:53 am

Comments

Seems symbolic, at this point. Just like “sanctuary cities” legislation in regards to immigration.

Keep an eye peeled for any sign of “constitutional sheriffs,” the screwball movement that somehow concluded that sheriffs are the ultimate law in their jurisdictions, final interpreters of the constitution, beyond the reach of state and federal courts.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 10:02 am
===beyond the reach of state and federal courts===

Well, the only person allowed under Illinois law to arrest a county sheriff is the county coroner. Cook County has no coroner. Ergo, Tom Dart can’t be arrested for violating a state law. lol

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 10:06 am
–Well, the only person allowed under Illinois law to arrest a county sheriff is the county coroner.–

Did not know that. I imagine there’s a story in how that came to be.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 10:10 am
I am sure these resolutions go along way to solving their opiod issues and bringing jobs to rural Illinois. /s

Comment by JS Mill Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 10:15 am
The story may be it wanted to put the “weakest” office to have this power, intending to appear as a fail safe power that probably wouldn’t be employed. It’s all in the appearance.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 10:18 am
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/01/joe-arpaio-pardon-sheriffs-movement-215566

Well….if Sheriff (former) Joe is down with the cause you know it has to be a kookfest.

My favorite passage from the article..

=The constitutional sheriff movement arose from the ashes of the far-right, anti-semitic Posse Comitatus movement of the 1970s and 80s, led by William Potter Gale. The insignia favored by these Christian Patriots was a redesigned sheriff’s badge containing a noose, Bible and sword, to reflect their belief that sheriffs were responsible for the armed defense of citizens and higher law (a combination of their view of the Constitution and Christian Identity teachings). Before the movement collapsed with Gale’s death, its paramilitary figures developed an anti-tax, anti-government agenda that stoked conspiracy theories that Jews were responsible for oppressing farmers through crushing taxes and exorbitant loans.=

Posse Comitatus, yikes.

Comment by JS Mill Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 10:21 am
Let’s send all our guns to gun sanctuaries. LOL

Comment by NoGifts Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 10:32 am
I don’t want to denigrate the real feelings of many rural citizens, but we need to put this in persepctive. The combined population of the counties that passed the resolutions already is about 522K, or about 4% of Illinoisans. The largest has a population of about 49K, and the median is about 16K. The biggest town in the biggest county is Kewanee. This is not a large voting block except at the local level where you see these kinds of things.

Comment by Jibba Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 10:44 am
===The biggest town in the biggest county is Kewanee===

Yeah, but Madison and Williamson are not tiny.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 10:47 am
Jibba - that is way off. Edwardsville and Collinsville are both around or above a population of 25,000, and Marion has about 5,000 more people than Kewanee. Madison County has 270,000 total residents and in a few years it could easily eclipse Winnebago for #7 on the Illinois county population chart.

Comment by Exclamation Point Deleted Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 11:06 am
“guns have rights too” /s

Comment by walker Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 11:14 am
We should recognize these for what they are - a clear sign that a significant portion of Illinois is tired of others imposing upon their rights and are willing to take a stand about it.

Could likely get much worse soon with a liberal Governor; but then much better with a SCOTUS more protective of our rights.

Comment by logic not emotion Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 11:20 am
–We should recognize these for what they are - a clear sign that a significant portion of Illinois is tired of others imposing upon their rights and are willing to take a stand about it.–

Yeah, up until this point, gun “rights” types were meek little lambs, just taking beatings without a whimper.

Thanks for pointing out this important “paradigm shift” you discovered.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 11:24 am
=We should recognize these for what they are - a clear sign that a significant portion of Illinois is tired of others imposing upon their rights and are willing to take a stand about it.

Could likely get much worse soon with a liberal Governor; but then much better with a SCOTUS more protective of our rights.=

Whom are you speaking for when you say “our”?

You have a poor understanding of the constitution and protection of rights, for years so-called conservative courts have been interpreting the 4th Amendment in a way contrary to the actual text (strict construction) and Scalia was supposedly an “originalist” put in reality a hypocrite.

The only person that wants to restrict your rights is the president who wants to take guns without due process.

Comment by JS Mill Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 11:26 am
Yessir, the key to recruiting new tourism, businesses and future residents to tiny, old and largely white Illinois counties is…gun sanctuaries?

I hope they have other ideas, because I’m not seeing how this is going to attract new investment.

Thank God we have these brave county officials to protect guns. Now, perhaps they can get back to work on their economic development plans. Doesn’t Illinois need a new prison?

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 11:33 am
== Two counties, Madison and Williamson, plan to send the question to voters on the Nov. 6 general election ballot. Madison and Williamson both have targeted legislative and congressional races this year. ==

smart move on their part.

Comment by bored now Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 11:39 am
“the 4th Amendment” ?

Comment by Flapdoodle Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 1:00 pm
Please note that I excluded Williamson and Madison, since they have not yet passed anything, so everything I said was accurate.

Comment by Jibba Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 1:05 pm
When a local official asked me about this topic prior to our county board approving it, I asked if that meant we wouldn’t be enforcing FOID cards here. He laughed. I then asked if my organization could pass a sanctuary resolution to exempt ourselves from particular county or municipal rules we didn’t like. He laughed again. I then asked if individual homeowners could proclaim themselves as tax sanctuaries and quit paying all taxes. He didn’t find that quite as funny for some reason.

Comment by Still Waiting Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 2:39 pm
you can add McDonough County to the list

Comment by Anon Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 3:08 pm
still waiting none of those are are in the bill of rights

Comment by Anon Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 3:10 pm
–still waiting none of those are are in the bill of rights–

Neither is county governments being the last word on interpreting the Constitution.

You know that the federales courts and the Supremes have always interpreted the Constitution to allow for strict federal and state regulation of guns, correct.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 3:26 pm
===Ergo, Tom Dart can’t be arrested for violating a state law.

More than a few coroner’s in the past were pretty much Otis from Andy Griffith. They have become far more professionalized in more recent years, but I find this law quite humorous.

Comment by Archpundit Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 3:49 pm
In a sense counties can use discretion on enforcing laws–depending on the statute. Some are shall act laws which don’t give discretion, but most criminal law does have discretion to the local enforcement. That does not stop the state police from making arrests though. State law is far more controlling to sheriffs than federal law which generally is more limited in forcing state authorities to enforce federal law. State law pretty much controls sheriffs other than as the state constitution limits it. Such as the rule that sheriffs can only be arrested by coroners. Of course, federal agents can make an arrest for federal crimes at any time.

That said, local sheriffs and prosecutors may want to remember the young man who shot up a Waffle House in Tennessee before thinking ignoring firearms laws is a good idea.

The problem with the resolutions is that they don’t have any specificity as to what is to be ignored and what is to be obeyed. When they decide to make those distinctions clear it will matter.

Comment by Archpundit Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 3:56 pm
“You know that the federales courts and the Supremes have always interpreted the Constitution to allow for strict federal and state regulation of guns, correct.” That’s soon going to change. Big time.

Comment by striketoo Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 6:57 pm
–“You know that the federales courts and the Supremes have always interpreted the Constitution to allow for strict federal and state regulation of guns, correct.” That’s soon going to change. Big time.–

How’s that? You got inside dope?

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 7:00 pm
===That said, local sheriffs and prosecutors may want to remember the young man who shot up a Waffle House in Tennessee before thinking ignoring firearms laws is a good idea.===

Speaking of which, his home County (Tazewell) is omitted from that list. They passed a similar resolution last week, and gave an attaboy to the Sheriff in the process.

Comment by Graduated College Student Monday, Jul 9, 18 @ 9:01 pm