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By Editor Becky Watts
ZEBULON - With a comment from the public before the meeting and some discussion regarding legalities in the official meeting, the Pike County Board of Commissioners voted this morning to approve a resolution declaring Pike County as a Second Amendment Sanctuary County. The vote was approved with all five commissioners voting yes.
Pike joins the ranks of about 30 counties that have made or are considering this declaration after watching the struggle over individual gun rights that is ongoing in Virginia since Democrats won control of the state government in November of last year. These counties include Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Brantley, Bulloch, Catoosa, Coweta, Dade, Floyd, Franklin, Gilmer, Gordon, Habesham, Haralson, Harris, Hart, Jackson, Meriwether, Murray, Muscogee, Pauldin, Polk, Rabun, Spalding, Stephens, Towns, Walker, Walton, White, and Whitfield.
Prior the meeting, Pike citizen Anthony Vinson urged commissioners to wait and think this through before they voted. "I am here to argue that an affirmative vote on the matter would be both reckless, and potentially dangerous to the citizens of Pike County," he said. Mr. Vinson noted that there is "political rhetoric and partisan agenda" as well as fearmongering, misinformation, and even lies from both sides, but he said that there is no evidence of a conspiracy to take our guns and challenged commissioners to present evidence that he was wrong on that.
He said that he is an Army veteran, gun owner, 2nd amendment supporter, and said that he is also a firm believer in the rule of law and that it's the responsibility of citizens to either follow the law or work through the system to change things. He said that this decision might seem correct but below the surface, he says that this body would be encouraging insurrection and maybe even endangering lives. He said that this would be ultimately going up against those with the real firepower such as Army, etc. and that did not go well in specific historical examples.
He ended by citing a John Mellencamp song, "When I fight authority, authority always wins," and said that reason, law, and the good of the citizens and our country should be considered by the board. He asked the members of the Board of Commissioners to hold off and study this. "What’s the rush?" he asked.
When this topic came up in the meeting later, County Attorney Rob Morton said that this resolution was brought to commissioners to consider based on resolutions that Rob has viewed and was specifically amended for our county. He also noted that another neighboring county is conducting action after a workshop. He noted that the resolution as written doesn’t put anything into law but it is simply declaring something rather than making it a law. He said this is supporting law enforcement not to support bad law, is not supporting anarchy, and is supporting citizens’ constitutional rights. It’s really against unconstitutional law, he said. He said that there would have to be a determination on whether something is unconstitutional.
Attorney Morton said that this is really a policy decision. He told commissioners that they could decide today or have a workshop.
Commissioner Jason Proctor made a motion to approve the resolution. Commissioner Tim Guy made the second. The motion was approved in a 5-0 decision.
Click here to read the entire resolution.
[Note from the Editor: Scroll down to my article if you are scratching your head about what a Second Amendment Sanctuary County really means. You'll understand if you read the resolution as well, but if you only have a few minutes at the moment and need to have some quiet time to read and digest the resolution, you will understand from the first article below.]
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By Editor Becky Watts
ZEBULON - The Pike County Commission discussed becoming a Second Amendment Sanctuary County in Tuesday night's meeting. District 3 Commissioner Jason Proctor brought this discusion to the table during the Commissioner Comments portion of the meeting by asking attorney Rob Morton what would be needed to become a firearms sanctuary county.
Commissioner Proctor said that he had already talked to the Sheriff about this, and that the Sheriff supports this. Attorney Morton said that this seems to be a hot topic and all commissioners need to do is authorize him to bring this before them in a format to consider and adopt. The motion was made for the county attorney to proceed with gathering information and bringing it back before commissioners. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.
On January 12, 2020, Habersham County became the first “Second Amendment Sanctuary County” in the State of Georgia. AccessWDUN reports that the Habersham County Commission voted on the measure after “months of discussion.” According to the article, the resolution prohibits “any agent, employee or official of the county, or any corporation providing services to the county, shall provide material support or participate in any way with the implementation of federal acts, orders, rules, laws or regulations in violation of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.” The resolution also states that there will be no authorization or appropriation of “funds, resources, employees, agencies, contractors, buildings, detention centers or offices for the purpose of enforcing or assisting in the enforcement of any element of any acts, laws, orders, mandates, rules or regulations that infringe on the right by the people to keep and bear arms.” Click here to read the entire article.
On January 20, 2020, the Stephens County Board of Commissioners voted to become the second Second Amendment Sanctuary County in the state of Georgia. According to FM93.1 WNEG in Toccoa, the resolution reads similarly to that of Habersham County with the Commissioners’ resolution declaring its support for the Second Amendment and the provisions in the Constitution of the State of Georgia “that protect Stephens County Citizens’ individual, inalienable rights to keep and bear arms.” This resolution also prohibits material support, appropriation of funds, resources, etc. or participation in anything that will assist in the enforcement or assistance in the enforcement of anything that infringes on county citizens’ right to keep and bear arms. Click here to read the article.
Sanctuary cities and counties are a very hot topic around the country as citizens in the State of Virginia are supporting similar actions across the state. According to https://va2nd.com/counties-cities_adopted/, 107 cities and counties across the state of Virginia have become Second Amendment Sanctuary cities and counties.
Here in Georgia, the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement is moving throughout the state. In fact, Butts and Lamar Counties are working to become Second Amendment Sanctuary Counties as well.
Commissioner Proctor spoke to Pike County Times about the proposed Second Amendment Sanctuary legislation. “At the last Commissioners’ meeting, I proposed to move forward with making Pike County a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary County,” he said. “After discussing with Sheriff Thomas, I chose to do this to protect the citizens of Pike County’s right to bear arms.”
Pike County Times spoke with Sheriff Jimmy Thomas about the possibility of Pike County becoming a Second Amendment Sanctuary County. “I think it’s a good idea,” he said. “I fully support the Second Amendment, the right to right bear arms.”
He also said that it’s good to let the citizens and the country know that no matter what is going on in the rest of the country, we believe in upholding the Constitution.
Thank you to First Bank of Pike for sponsoring Pike County Times’ Breaking News Alerts! First Bank of Pike has been serving customers in Pike County and the surrounding area since 1901 and offers Personal and Business banking with a personal touch. Services include checking, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, and IRA’s. Mobile Banking and Bill Payment services are also available! Click here for more. Please let First Bank of Pike know that you appreciate their sponsorship of Breaking News Alerts on Pike County's only FREE online newspaper!
If you want to find out about how you can get Breaking News Alerts, click here. Thanks for reading and supporting Pike County Times.com!