Sanctuary states are popping up all over the place. While I’m a bit bothered that my native Georgia can’t seem to get off its butt to be one, but a lot of other states have. This is a wonderful thing if for no other reason than to send a clear signal to Washington that much of the United States isn’t interested in their hair-brained gun control desires.

Now, Wisconsin’s legislature has made a key step in that state joining the sanctuary ranks.

The Wisconsin Assembly passed a bill blocking law enforcement from enforcing federal gun laws in the state.

Gun advocates are pleased with the bill, calling federal gun laws confusing and redundant.

They also believe the Second Amendment is absolute.

But gun safety advocates said the bill is dangerous.

“It’s a really good thing, it’s a positive step, it shows that there are politicians at least at the state level that are interested in the gun rights battle,” said Brew City Shooting Supply Instructor Adam Campbell.

Campbell could talk all day about the federal firearms laws he thinks are unnecessarily complex and redundant. He’s passionate about guns and said lawmakers only ever make more gun laws.

“It’s very rare, very, very rare, for rules to be rolled back,” said Campbell.

Of course, the usual suspects are making their typical arguments against the measure, claiming it will hurt law enforcement and make their job more difficult, even though that’s a bunch of nonsense. They say that about pretty much any pro-gun bill anyway, so that’s easy to dismiss.

The question to ask now is whether it will pass.

Wisconsin’s governor, Tony Evers, is a Democrat. Democrats aren’t known for supporting Second Amendment sanctuary measures. Because of that, I expect a veto, then we get to go through this again next session and the session after that. Evers took office in 2019, so he won’t run for reelection until 2022.

That’s not what anyone really wants to deal with, but this is where we are.

The next question is whether lawmakers in the state would pass this if a Republican governor were in office. There seems to be a concern that Republicans only seem interested in passing pro-gun legislation when there’s no chance of it actually being signed into law. I can’t say people are wrong to think that, either. My own Georgia still has a red legislature and a Republican governor and can’t seem to be bothered to pass much of anything for gun rights over the last few years.

However, I’m hopeful that’s not the case in Wisconsin.

For now, though, they’re stuck with Evers and I don’t see him backing anything like this at all. Instead, he’ll veto it and we’ll be right back where we started.

Which is sad, because sanctuary states are vital to the defense of our Second Amendment rights and, by extension, all of our other rights. Without the right to keep and bear arms, every other right we value is at risk, so we’d better hold onto them.