Sheriffs’ Group Calls Officers to Refuse to Enforce Gun Control

A national sheriffs’ group is calling on law enforcement officers to refuse to enforce gun controls that infringe on the Second Amendment.

The group, called the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), began taking steps to drop enforcement of such controls “at the association’s 2014 convention.” Since that time, they have stepped up their efforts “to encourage law enforcement officers to defy laws they decide themselves are illegal.”

According to The Center for Public Integrity, former Graham County, Arizona, Sheriff Richard Mack formed the CSPOA in 2011. Mack “claims the dues-paying support of several hundred of the nation’s more than 3,000 sheriffs and the sympathies of hundreds more.”

Some of these same sheriffs end up “in curious agreement with members of the sovereign citizens’ movement” from time to time. But “dozens” of the sheriffs have made their name writing letters to President Obama–following events like Sandy Hook Elementary School–letting Obama know they will not enforce any new gun laws passed onto the backs of law-abiding citizens because of the actions of a crazed gunman.

Mack made a name for himself in 1996 by challenging Brady Law requirements that “local chief law enforcement” officers carry out background checks for the public’s gun purchases. Mack won that case at the Supreme Court with a 5-4 ruling. The Washington Post reports Antonin Scalia wrote a majority opinion “affirming the states’ sovereignty under the 10th Amendment and that the federal government could not enlist the local police in 50 states to do its bidding.” Although gun control advocates got around the decision by creating a database allowing Federal Firearms License holders (FFLs) to do background checks themselves, Mack found himself endeared to a solid contingent of gun owners and conservatives throughout the land.

Mack says of himself:

I never advocated violence. I spent 20 years in law enforcement without ever beating up anybody. [But] when you have no place else to go, when all the courts are against you, all the legislators are against you, where else do you go? I believe to the local county sheriff … and if that means standing against the federal government, then so damn be it.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.