Second Amendment Sanctuaries Spreading Across The Lone Star State

The movement by cities and counties to declare themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries” has been steadily growing for over a year now, and it looks like two more counties in Texas are joining the hundreds of communities that have already taken a stand in support of the right to keep and bear arms.

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Parker County, which is located just to the west of Fort Worth, is home to more than 130,000 residents. It’s also home to the newest Second Amendment Sanctuary resolution on the books, after commissioners approved the measure Monday afternoon.

“I put this item on the agenda about this resolution because I feel that some of these socialist gun-takers that are getting elected or trying to be elected are trying to take some of our guns now and more later,” Precinct 1 Commissioner George Conley said. “They have already warned us that this is what they’ve planned on doing, so we have been warned. It seems to me that it’s OK to have sanctuary cities, but it’s not OK to have a sanctuary county, so that’s why I put this on here to see if we want to step out there and do that.”

The county commissioners unanimously approved the resolution on a 5-0 vote, but there were some folks in attendance unhappy about the decision.

Parker County Democratic Party Chair Kay Parr said in passing the resolution, the commissioners will be declaring that the county does not believe in the law, is unwilling to enforce it and does not believe or support representative democracy or the Constitution.

“When each of you took the oath of office, you swore on the Bible to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the laws of the state of Texas. If you vote for this resolution, you will have broken that oath,” Parr said. “The premise of this resolution, should the state of Texas or United States’ duly-elected government representatives enact any laws that govern gun ownership or access to guns, the government of Parker County will defy that law.”

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That’s a really lame argument, and clearly it wasn’t too persuasive, since the entire county commission ended up thumbing their nose at Parr and voting for the resolution anyway. As the resolution makes clear, it’s not about defying the Constitution, but upholding it instead.

The resolution states that the commissioners court affirms its support for the duly-elected sheriff of Parker County, in the exercise of his sound discretion, and affirms its resolve to support decisions made by the sheriff to not enforce any unconstitutional firearms restrictions against any citizen. The commissioners court will not authorize or appropriate government funds, resources, employees, agencies, contractors, buildings, detention centers or offices for the purpose of enforcing a law that unconstitutionally infringes on the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

Meanwhile, commissioners in Smith County, Texas will vote on their own Second Amendment Sanctuary resolution on Tuesday, and the measure is expected to pass.

If approved, the commissioners court would resolve to refuse to authorize or appropriate government funds, employees or resources for the purpose of enforcing laws “that have been found to unconstitutionally infringe on the rights of citizens.”

Precinct 3 Commissioner Terry Phillips brought the motion forward. Phillips said he was inspired by the other counties that had adopted resolutions of their own.

“I actually had been thinking about it for months now, and when I saw some of the other towns and counties going forward, I thought I needed to do something here,” Phillips said.

He said he became concerned when Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso called for mandatory buybacks of certain rifles, and proposed red flag laws.

“When I started hearing these things about Beto confiscating your guns, I was concerned, first he started out with a buyback,” Phillips said. “How are they gonna buy back my guns? I didn’t buy them from the government. He’s talking nonsense about grabbing our guns and that’s when I became concerned.”

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Congratulations, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke. Not only did your zeal for a gun ban and confiscation scuttle gun control talks between the White House and Congress, you’re now inspiring counties in your own home state to declare themselves “Second Amendment Sanctuaries” in opposition to your proposed gun grab. But hey, at least your polling numbers are looking pretty… well, dreadful, to be honest. O’Rourke’s campaign may be on its last legs, but thanks to his anti-gun rhetoric, he’s already guaranteed it will have a lasting impact in the Texas in the form of the Second Amendment sanctuaries popping up around the state.

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