(Interview) The Gun Control Act, signed into law by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in January 2023, has faced opposition from the sheriffs, a key group in law enforcement. They are locally elected officials at the county level who run prisons, provide courtroom security, and are the primary providers of law enforcement services in many counties.

Some sheriffs in Illinois and across the country see themselves as the ultimate defenders of the United States Constitution and its rights. Even though there is no law or history that conferred that status.

In Illinois, about 80 of the state’s 102 sheriffs oppose the Protect Illinois Communities Act. The law prohibits the sale and distribution of assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and switches that convert firearms into assault weapons. Anyone who owned these items before the law was passed in January 2023 will be required to register them with the state. Most of the sheriffs who opposed it issued a statement that they would not enforce the law because they believed it violated the Second Amendment.

For example, Brown County Sheriff Justin Oliver posted an official statement on the agency’s Facebook page on letterhead. He has sworn to defend his constitutional rights and believes this action violates the Second Amendment, according to the statement. Cops do not verify legal gun owner registrations, nor do they arrest or detain law-abiding individuals.”

Our research, which surveyed sheriffs in 2012 and 2021, found that sheriffs were far more likely to support lax gun control laws than the general public. We also found that view is related to the views of some sheriffs as being the highest level defenders of the U.S. Constitution and the constitutional rights of Americans.

Last line of defense?

We have reached out to the Association of Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers, a political organization founded in 2009 by former Sheriff of Graham County, Arizona, Richard Mack, to recognize the sheriff as the ultimate guardian of the Constitution. I got an idea.

Mack first gained notoriety in right-wing circles as a plaintiff in Printz v. United States, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1996. In its ruling, the court declared portions of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 unconstitutional. The ruling states that the law requiring state and local officials to conduct background checks on prospective gun buyers violates the Tenth Amendment, which limits federal influence over state and local governments. said there is.

The association, which Mack founded after the election of former President Barack Obama, calls itself a network of (self-proclaimed) “constitutional sheriffs” who refuse to enforce laws the sheriffs consider unconstitutional, It encourages resistance to excesses by the government.

However, its key idea goes back to Posse Comitatus. It was a 1970s white supremacist and anti-Semitic right-wing movement that, as part of its conspiratorial ideology, believed that county sheriffs held the highest governmental authority in the United States. The views are not historically accurate and are not in the US Constitution.

Nonetheless, Mack and his organization have been actively recruiting and training sheriffs for over a decade to give their office more power than the president and pass laws they believe are unconstitutional. I have tried to believe that I can refuse. In his 2019 article, Mack told NPR, “Whenever someone seeks to diminish or violate the rights of individuals in our county, sheriffs have a responsibility to intervene. This is the doctrine of intervention.” “am. ”

original point of view

This movement of so-called “constitutional sheriffs” has been particularly successful in recruiting more sheriffs to ideologies on guns, immigration and COVID-related policy issues.

The protest in Illinois isn’t the sheriff’s first attempt to resist gun control. When President Obama pushed for nationwide gun control legislation after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, Mack’s group took control of his more than 450 sheriffs and 19 state sheriffs. He mobilized the public association to oppose federal gun control.

Similarly, when Washington passed a gun safety measure in 2018, sheriffs across the state opposed the measure and threatened not to enforce it because they said it violated people’s constitutional rights. rice field.

And in Illinois, despite its lack of legitimacy, its followers continue to get in the way of the law. State and federal officials called on the Illinois sheriff to enforce the law as required by the oath of office. But many sheriffs continue to say they can decide which laws to enforce even if voters disagree.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/sheriffs-who-see-themselves-as-ultimate-defenders-of-the-constitution-are-especially-worried-about-gun-rights-198485.