The Biden Administration has stated that they are committed to enacting more gun control legislation, but, locally, concerned residents intend to halt those efforts in Gregory County.
Just as some major cities have declared themselves to be sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants, refusing to obey federal laws regarding immigration, so this group aims to avoid obeying federal gun control laws by becoming a second amendment sanctuary county.
The idea isn’t a new one. Brown County, IL, passed a similar resolution in support of the Second Amendment on June 22, 2007. Since then 1,164 counties or countyequivalents of 3,141 total in the United States have done the same. Bennett County is the first and only county in South Dakota to have become a Second Amendment Sanctuary County so far.
A Second Amendment Sanctuary County is one that has passed a resolution or an ordinance that upholds the God-given rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution and denounces any attempts to infringe on those rights.
Gun owners have cause for concern. The House of Representatives has passed two bills recently, one that expands background checks and another which allows for the FBI to indefinitely delay background checks; currently there is a three-day default transfer window.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that they would reintroduce other gun control measures as well.
The South Dakota Legislature had two bills related to firearms come up this year. SB100, designed to protect against the seizure of firearms, was passed. SB129, which stated that South Dakota would not follow any further restrictions on guns or ammunition, was defeated.
In voting against SB129, Senator Jim Bolin, R-Canton, called the bill “dangerous,” calling into question the legality of having a state nullify a federal law, saying “that’s what we have courts for.” He suggested that the Legislature could support the same ideas in the form of a resolution instead.
Prices on guns and ammunition have been going up for awhile. Jeff Gregg of Jeff’s Gun Vault in Winner said that 7-8 million new firearms were sold in response to the onset of COVID-19. That, combined with protests across the country and elections putting gun control advocates into office have added greatly to demand and made, especially, ammunition, but also guns more difficult to get. Then just the fear of shortages drives consumers to purchase more ammunition as well as firearms. Following the law of supply and demand, prices have risen steadily.
Mykala Voita, Erin Schulte, and Alyssa Liewer have placed petitions throughout the county. Once enough signatures have been collected, the petition will be presented to the Gregory County Board of Commissioners, asking the commissioners to vote on the resolution to declare the county a Second Amendment Sanctuary County.
Copies of the petition are located at Cenex, Scott’s Auto Repair, and Sissy’s in Gregory, Burke True Value and Nelson Machine and Auto in Burke, Linda’s Creations in Fairfax, and 4 Seasons Ag between Burke and Herrick.
