By Joseph P. Tartaro | Executive Editor
California Gov. Jerry Brown, aided and abetted by the state Legislature and several big city mayors, insists on making his state a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, even those who commit crimes.
Sanctuaries have been safe havens for all kinds of penal and civil criminals through the centuries, as well as for people who hold “out-of-favor” religious views. But sanctuaries for illegal aliens have been much in the news for quite some time.
So it was surprising, but not entirely unexpected, when the Washington Times published a story by Douglas Ernst on April 19, 2018—a day with a long history of significance for gunowners—about a rural Illinois county that had declared itself a “sanctuary” for gun owners.
Given the climate of public attacks on law abiding gunowners, it’s not entirely surprising that it has come to this.
Effingham County State’s Attorney Bryan Kibler and board member David Campbell called a barrage of gun-control bills working their way through the Illinois House and Senate a clear signal that it’s time to “take a stand.”
According to the Times, the men joined “Fox & Friends First” on April 19—think Lexington and Concord 1776—to discuss a new Second Amendment resolution that passed in their county on an 8-1 vote.
Mr. Ernst’s report continues.
We “decided it’s time for someone to take a hard stand,” Mr. Campbell told the network.
The resolution reads: “If the Government of the State of Illinois shall infringe upon the inalienable rights granted by the Second Amendment, Effingham County shall become a ‘sanctuary county’ for all firearms.”
Mr. Kibler said that Effingham’s move, while “mostly symbolic,” was drafted to articulate the high level of discontent among its population.
“We thought, ‘How can we really get the point across that this is becoming a major concern to our constituents that our Second Amendment rights and liberties are being slowly stripped away through numerous bills coming through the Illinois General Assembly?’ … Why don’t we just make this a sanctuary county like they would for undocumented immigrants,” Mr. Campbell said. “So we did flip the script on it.”
Mr. Kibler said that an “outpouring of support” has flowed into his office from neighboring counties.
“It’s symbolic … but it really proves that people in southern Illinois are tired of being pushed around” by Chicago legislators, he said.
The rural county of 34,000 residents is home to the world’s second largest cross, a 200-foot steel memorial, the Times continued, as it fleshed out its story.
But then it added a curious fact: that the last time a majority of Effingham County voters backed a Democrat for president was in 1964.
Perhaps that date is significant.
The 1964 election was between President Lyndon Baines Johnson and Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. The Effingham County majority that year voted for the Democrat and helped win him a huge popular and Electoral College victory.
Among the things the people got was the Gun Control Act of 1968. So I surmise that the good people of Effingham County were maybe turned off of the Democratic Party because of the gun issue, and that their recent “sanctuary” statement for gunowners is a further expression of their general attitude about the right to keep and bear arms.
What affect that will have on the Democrat-dominated Chicago politicians who represent a powerful majority in the state Legislature is difficult to say. Certainly, there are Illinoisans who wish it were different, especially those in the Illinois State Rifle Association who have been waging a long struggle to protect their Second Amendment Rights since before the 1968 election.
What has become increasing alarming, especially mong registered Democrats everywhere in the US, is that the leaders of the Democratic Party have so embraced anti-gun rights policies not only at the state level but at the federal level as well.
One can only wish it weren’t so, especially for the political future of those few Democrat politicians who still support a Constitutional right to keep and bear arms
