The ink had barely dried on Obama rolling out his proposals for reforms in our gun laws, and some sheriffs have already said they won't enforce any measure on the list.
First up, Denny Peyman, the sheriff of Jackson County, Kentucky.
"Kentucky is a sovereign state," Peyman told NBC News. "The federal government is coming in and saying, 'This is what you're going to do.' We're not going to do it."
The White House's wish list includes an assault-weapons ban. Peyman said if it comes to pass, he won't be part of any crackdown.
"Let's say I know there's a thousand assault weapons in my county ... I'm not going to be a witch hunter and go door to door checking," he said.
"I just happen to see someone with one?" he added. "He's hunting? He's on his own property? I'm not going to do a thing to him."
He's not alone. Robin Cole of Pine County, Minnesota wrote a letter to county residents saying he would not enforce any law that ran counter to his interpretation of the Second Amendment. Tim Meuller of Linn County, Oregon wrote a letter to Biden saying that this recent push amounts to exploiting innocent victims--
and posted it on his Facebook.
So we've got at least three sheriffs on record saying they aren't willing to take tougher measures to keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons. And they're also on record as not wanting to throw the book at people who try to buy guns when they legally can't do so. Somebody's violating their oath of office--and it sure isn't the president.
Dudley Brown of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, a pro-gun organization that thinks the NRA is too moderate, says that several other sheriffs have told him they won't enforce any new federal laws on guns.
"We'll see how many of them have the courage to do it," he said.
Brown said he particularly wants to take aim at Obama's move to require background checks before all private sales of guns.
"This is an attempt to catalog every gun owner in America. It's registration," he said. "We don't believe he can do this. We know there are U.S. senators who don't believe this is legal."
It's amazing that Brown can say this with a straight face after what happened in Webster, New York on Christmas Eve. Two firefighters are dead, two more are wounded and seven families got burned out of their homes because Dawn Nguyen illegally bought two guns for William Spengler.