The right to keep and bear arms may have been stolen by the Colorado state legislature, but a posse of local lawmen is riding to the rescue.
In an interview with Breitbart News, Colorado gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo reports that sheriffs in the Centennial State are ramping up efforts to undo the infringement of the rights protected by the Second Amendment.
On August 26, Tancredo told Breitbart News, “The laws that have been passed are being challenged by 55 Sheriffs, along with other Coloradans who anticipate the laws will be struck down because they are blatantly unconstitutional.”
He added that the first bellwether for the future of this fundamental liberty will be the September 10 recall elections. The results of these contests “will be the most important and powerful signal we can send,” Tancredo said, as quoted in the Breitbart report.
The Denver Post reports on the questions facing voters at the upcoming election:
Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs and Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo face recall elections in their districts Sept. 10.
Voters will be asked whether the lawmakers should be recalled and which candidate should succeed them.
The Colorado Constitution requires voters to vote “yes” or “no” on the recall question to have their vote for a successor be counted….”
Denver’s ABC News affiliate reports that both Giron and Morse are being subjected to these special elections specifically because of their support for strict gun control measures passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Governor Hickenlooper on March 20.
In May, the Washington Post reported on not only the unconstitutional limits imposed by the new statutes, but on the legal challenge filed by Coloradans — including many sheriffs — to restore their right to keep and bear arms:
In Colorado, a powerful coalition of plaintiffs — 54 county sheriffs, the NRA, National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), Magpul Industries and disabled individuals — filed suit in U.S. District Court on May 17 to challenge Gov. John Hickenlooper’s new gun-control regulations.
Starting July 1, there will be a ban on magazines over 15 rounds and an implementation of so-called universal background checks for all gun sales and transfers — conducted for a fee which gun buyers must pay.
“Colorado’s federally-licensed firearms retailers are being asked to process private-party transfers as if they were selling from their own inventory. They’re being told to monitor both seller and buyer through a state-administered check process that can take hours or even days,” Lawrence Keane, NSSF’s general counsel, explained to me. “Our retailers won’t be able to recoup the actual cost of providing the service — which is capped at $10 — but they will be liable for paperwork errors and subject to license revocation.”
Tancredo informed Breitbart that the sheriffs are ramping up the strength of their opposition to the strictures.
The Republican candidate reports that “55 of 62 elected sheriffs” are united in their advocacy of the Second Amendment, adding that they “are probably the most respected elected officials in the state,” and are likely to convert this political capital into support for their campaign against Hickenlooper, Giron, and Morse.
Sheriffs nationwide are awakening to the reality of their role as the ultimate constitutionally elected county executive. Once aware of this role and its responsibilities, the lawmen are stepping up in defense of the Constitution, including the Second Amendment. As reported in January by The New American:
Elected sheriffs, as the top law enforcement officers within their counties, work for the citizens and taxpayers in their jurisdictions, not the federal government. Even the Supreme Court ruled that sheriffs cannot be compelled to follow federal dictates or mandates in a landmark case on gun control. Now, with Obama pushing hard for new restrictions on gun rights — finding strong support from some anti-Second Amendment Democrats in Congress and much of the increasingly discredited establishment media — sheriffs nationwide are putting their foot down to defend the rights of their constituents. Chief law enforcement officers from Kentucky, Oregon, Texas, California, Missouri, Idaho, Alabama, Colorado, South Carolina, Georgia, Minnesota, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Ohio, New York, Utah, Oklahoma, and other states have all spoken out already — many of them in unison. It seems that virtually every single day, more sheriffs are adding their voices to the expanding list of prominent lawmen who have vowed to ensure that the U.S. Constitution is respected in their jurisdictions.
On its website, the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) reports that 18 state sheriffs associations have signed on to join “the growing numbers of faithful protectors of our freedom.” The state associations that have enlisted in the fight against Obama’s gun control are:
California Sheriffs Association
Colorado Sheriffs Association
Florida Sheriffs Association
Georgia Sheriffs Association
Illinois Sheriffs Association
Indiana Sheriffs Association
Kentucky Sheriffs Association
Michigan Sheriffs Association
Minnesota Sheriffs Association
Missouri Sheriffs Association
Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association
Nebraska Sheriffs Association
New Mexico Sheriffs Association
Oklahoma Sheriffs Association
South Carolina Sheriffs Association
Texas Sheriffs Association
Utah Sheriffs Association
Wyoming Sheriffs Association
CSPOA also offers a data base of individual sheriffs across the country who have signed on to enforce the Second Amendment’s protection against government deprivation of this most basic liberty.
As for Tancredo, he tells Breitbart that he has “never been as proud” to be a Coloradan as he is now, as state sheriffs draw the line and stand firm in defense of the Constitution, including the right to keep and bear arms.
Photo of Colorado sheriffs: AP Images
Joe A. Wolverton, II, J.D. is a correspondent for The New American and travels frequently nationwide speaking on topics of nullification, the NDAA, and the surveillance state. He can be reached at [email protected]
