Second Amendment Sanctuary in Scioto County -- Guns In the Name of God, Country, and the Alt-Right

The Scioto County Commissioners are considering potential legislation to declare Scioto County as a Second Amendment Sanctuary County.

According to a post by commissioners, they have been approached by multiple citizens calling for the adoption of 2A legislation out of concern and support for the Second Amendment.

“When your Commissioners took our oaths of office, we promised to uphold the Constitution of the State of Ohio and that of the United States of America. We, along with many others, are concerned about some of the anti-constitutional rhetoric being used by some elected officials in our country,” Commissioners posted on their public Facebook page.

– Ivy Potter, Portsmouth Daily Times, January 15, 2020

So, the Scioto County commissioners want to place the label of “gun sanctuary” on a county ravaged by the opiod epidemic and currently ranking 84^th in Ohio's 88 counties on overall health factors? Make no mistake, this is political posturing rooted in the strong influence of the gun lobby that has deep connections to corporate partners in the firearms industry.

Elected conservative officials play upon fears of a government gun takeover to rally their base, a group committed to defending an unwavering 2nd Amendment and the unlimited right to bear arms. They view any gun control measures – even those addressing the scourge of gun violence – to be unconstitutional. Yet, the Constitution remains a political document that is subject to the ideological forces of the time.

Second Amendment Sanctuaries are defined as states, counties, or localities within the United States that adopt laws or resolutions to prohibit or impede the enforcement of certain gun control measures believed to infringe on the rights of the Second Amendment such as universal gun background checks, high capacity magazine bans, assault weapon bans and red flag laws.

These advocates for sanctuaries simply ignore the growing frustration around the lack of comprehensive and common sense gun control measures. They do this in the face of great opposition. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in September 2019 found that 60% of Americans say gun laws should be tougher, up from 57% last year and 52% in 2017.

The study indicates that while a solid majority of Americans favor stricter gun laws, support remains split down party lines. Eighty-six percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said gun laws should be stricter than they are today, compared with 31% of their Republican counterparts.

What does the health community find about guns and safety? The American Medical Association has come forth with unprecedented demands from doctor-members to take a stronger stance on gun violence. And still, political opposition thwarts investigation.

The federal government stopped funding gun-violence research after Congress passed a rule called the “Dickey Amendment” in 1996. U.S. lawmakers have recently reached an agreement in 2019 that would fund gun-violence research for the first time since the amendment.

However, nothing has been produced by the Centers for Disease Control since it was instructed to resume support for gun research. The agency did ask in the President’s last two budget requests for Congressional approval of $10 million to study gun violence – a paltry amount – but no funding was approved by Congress. Two Members of Congress also introduced a bill supporting funding for the CDC to do gun research. Again, a Republican-controlled House of Representatives at the time voted it down.

“Guns have been used successfully in self-defense. But the reality is that owning a gun is associated with an increased risk of family injury or death. Unintentional shootings and attempted or completed suicides far outweigh the use of guns in self-defense.

“In fact, the more households that have guns within a particular state, the more gun deathsthere are -- even after adjusting for crime, unemployment, urbanization, alcohol, and poverty.”

– Wynne Armand, MD, Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School

Most Americans do not favor the seizure of guns. Still, despite unfounded fears of government takeovers, they do believe it is more important to control gun violence than to protect gun rights, according to a new PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist poll. The poll shows …

89% favor increased mental health funding

83% support required background checks for private and gun show sales

72% support a national “red flag” law

72% believe a license should be required before a gun purchase

61% support a ban of high capacity magazines

57% favor a ban of semi-automatic weapons

45% believe in a mandatory assault weapon buyback program

37% believe in allowing school teachers to carry guns

Here is what one county supervisor in Virginia who supports gun sanctuaries there said about any resistance to gun control …

“We need to show them a crowd like they have never seen. They need to be afraid and they should be afraid.”

It is sorely evident legislators should always be attuned to any unintended consequences of the enactments they pass. A disinformation campaign reliant on fear mongering and the systematic dis-accreditation of opposition voices is dangerous. The NRA has masterfully constructed a narrative based on gun rights propaganda, evoking images of a society devoid of rule of law and under constant threat of attack from an unidentified but ever-present enemy.

Declaring gun sanctuaries that defy laws could leave the enforcement of duly passed laws totally in the hands of sheriffs and local officials with discretionary power to determine their constitutionality. That is a direct attack on republican government and the Constitution itself.

In support of gun sanctuaries, a number localities across Virginia want to do much more. As Eric Young, an attorney and a county administrator there, put it, “Our position is that Article I, Section 13, of the Constitution of Virginia reserves the right to ‘order’ militia to the localities. Therefore, counties, not the state, determine what types of arms may be carried in their territory and by whom. So, we are ‘ordering’ the militia by making sure everyone can own a weapon.” Militia and any type of arms? Insane.

Other counties are announcing different schemes if gun safety laws are enacted: For example, the Culpeper County sheriff pledged to deputize “thousands of our law-abiding citizens” so they can own firearms. Thousands of deputies? Insane.

Those two approaches are classic cases of false equivalency – a fallacy perpetrated when two incompatible arguments appear to be logically equivalent when in fact they are not. The need and logical purpose for militias and thousands of deputies simply do not exist … at least in the minds of sensible citizens, those wary of profitable political influence spurred by the deep pockets of the gun lobby.

An example of false equivalence :

"The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is no different from your neighbor dripping some oil on the ground when changing oil in his car." The comparison is between things differing by many orders of magnitude: Deepwater Horizon spilled 210 million gallons of oil; one's neighbor might spill perhaps one pint.

For some proponents of so-called gun sanctuaries, the goal is to prevent enforcement of state law that the jurisdiction (not a court) deems unconstitutional. Under what decree? Localities and local constitutional officers cannot nullify state laws and must comply with gun violence prevention measures that a General Assembly may enact. The law is the law. If any form of gun control becomes the law, sworn officers of the law don't have a choice – they must uphold the law.

Here is a response from one Virginia couple concerning gun sanctuaries …

“…my husband and I are die hard 2nd Amendment defenders, and if they want our guns they will have to kill us to get them, but I guarantee that they will not come out of that battle unscathed!!!”

Emotion, reactionary responses to measures to prevent gun violence do occur. To these people any proposition to restrict access to weapons is grounds for inciting unfounded fear and even violence. Of course, unrestricted weapons advocacy ignites increased activity by paramilitary groups like neo-Nazis, Klan members, and anti-Semitic Christians.

People like Larry Pratt, right-wing extremist and executive director of Gun Owners of America (GOA) with a 40-year tenure, believe that white Christians must arm themselves for self-protection in the inevitable social implosions and riots that are soon to come. Pratt stands at the intersection of guns and Jesus, lobbying for absolutely unrestricted distribution of firearms while advocating a theocratic society based upon Old Testament civil and religious laws. Pratt proclaims …

“We are looking at a major assault on the right to keep and bear arms, and it is kind of reminiscent of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, where they used doctors as part of their torture routines and got people sent to the camps for improvement of their mental health."

Far from issuing a declaration in support of the Second Amendment – and in support of crazy ideologies those of like Larry Pratt – Scioto County should refuse to declare itself a Second Amendment Sanctuary County. The Second Amendment already exists. Any attempt to further needless political unrest in the name of the law during these trying times, a time when the nation is suffering from unprecedented division and serious government misconduct, will simply deepen the divide.

I live in this county. A gun sanctuary designation does not speak to my beliefs, nor does the false, all-inclusive declaration of unlimited gun rights. To make such a designation usurps the rule of law as it is now and as it may be further enacted. 

 There were 57,473 gun violence incidents in 2018, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an independent data collection and research group that collects gun violence numbers from law enforcement, media, government, and commercial sources. As a progressive thinker and a so-called enemy of the alt-right, I fear far more for those who may suffer at the hands of violent, right-wing extremist gun owners than I fear for those who may suffer from acts of foreign terrorists or unlawful immigrants,