This Colorado sheriff is willing to go to jail rather than enforce a proposed gun law

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

This Colorado sheriff is willing to go to jail rather than enforce a proposed gun law

By Scott McLean and Sara Weisfeldt, CNN
Updated 0611 GMT (1411 HKT) March 31, 2019

Denver (CNN) — Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams disagrees so much with a gun bill making its way through the Colorado legislature that he's willing to go to jail rather than enforce it.

"It's a matter of doing what's right," he said.

He's not the only one who feels so strongly.

The controversial "red flag" bill aims to seize guns temporarily from people who are deemed to be a threat to themselves or others.

Colorado's state Senate passed the bill Thursday by a single vote, without any Republican support, and the bill is expected to pass the House, possibly this week. With Democratic majorities in both chambers, state Republicans have too few votes to stand in the way.

But more than half of Colorado's 64 counties officially oppose the bill. Many have even declared themselves Second Amendment "sanctuary" counties in protest.

-snip-

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/31/us/colorado-red-flag-gun-law/index.html

[madamesilverspurs]

1. Sadly familiar.

I live in his county, and his stance is neither new nor surprising. His predecessor, now in the state senate, took much the same position when Obama attempted to respond to gun violence following Sandy Hook. I sent that sheriff a clipping of an opinion piece written by a sheriff in Idaho, emphasizing that the author was a Republican in a deeply red state; his letter essentially said that his enforcing tasks were not limited to those positions he agreed with. Our (then) sheriff sent me a response that was comprised of poor spelling, incomplete sentences, and snide remarks about me as someone who obviously supported Obama.

The county's elected seats are 99.9% filled with Republicans. The county commission has been entirely GOP for thirty years. Following the recent midterms, which saw the statewide ballots go blue, the commissioners starting talking secession AGAIN (a few years back they tried it and it failed), this time suggesting that the county needs to be part of Wyoming. The county GOP leadership is fomenting for a recall of the one Democrat elected to the state house, claiming that she doesn't do enough for constituents; never mind that one of their own is famous for doing absolutely nothing other than keeping the seat from a Democrat, that being remarked on by the local paper that, more often than not, supports the Republican candidate. They are also quite happy to support the effort to impeach our new governor for being a Democrat.

Informing the philosophical gun conversation is RMGO (Rocky Mountain Gun Owners), whose Dudley Brown demonstrated his humanity by very deliberately scheduling a pro-gun rally across the street from a gathering commemorating those lost at the mass shooting at the theater in Aurora. With good reason he has been described in national publications as being so far gone that he makes Lapierre look like Mother Teresa.

To be sure, there are plenty of good people who live here. Problem is, the local GOP is more concerned with holding the reins of power rather than making sure that good government happens. And Sheriff Reams is just the current poster boy for a county party that seems unusually fond of the Boss Hogg model.


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[trixie2]

2. Lock him up! Lock him up!

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Let's hope his wish is granted. nt

[gejohnston]

4. these laws probably violate the fifth amendment

right to due process, and expect them to be struck down. Most of the time the "deemed" is simply the say so of the complainant and the target has to prove his innocence. The guy shot by cops in MA was not a threat to himself or anyone else. One of his asshole relatives used the law to "swat" him for some trivial reasons.