Weld County (Colorado) Sheriff John Cooke
While sheriffs and legislators in a number of states have said they will not enforce any new federal gun-control laws they believe infringe on the Second Amendment, and even
arrest federal law enforcement officers, county sheriffs in Colorado are in open revolt against new
state gun-control laws awaiting the governor's signature.
Their reactions show what may be expected elsewhere, especially in Western and Southern states, if Congress passes gun-control measures it is now considering. It doesn't take a genius to see that resistance to tighter gun-control laws at the state and federal level could have an impact on elections. Sheriffs' associations in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming have all vowed not to enforce what they consider unconstitutional gun laws.
John Cooke, the sheriff of Weld County, Colorado, says he will not enforce two of five new laws awaiting the governor's signature. Both houses of the state legislature are controlled by Democrats and the measures passed on narrow party-line votes after extensive and acrimonious debate that drew thousands to Denver to watch and make their own views known. And Cooke is not the only sheriff who is balking at enforcing the laws once they are signed by the governor.
The two laws in question would limit gun magazines to 15 rounds and require people who buy guns to pay a $10 fee for background checks they undergo before they are allowed to make their purchase.
The Greeley Tribune, the daily newspaper in the county's biggest city, reported:
“They’re feel-good, knee-jerk reactions that are unenforceable,” he said.
Cooke said the bill requiring a $10 background check to legally transfer a gun would not keep firearms out of the hands of those who use them for violence.
“Criminals are still going to get their guns,” he said.
Cooke said the other bill would also technically ban all magazines because of a provision that outlaws any magazine that can be altered. He said all magazines can be altered to a higher capacity.
Below the fold, read how another Colorado sheriff plans to respond.
On Thursday, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa told an angry crowd in Colorado Springs:
“One of the reasons a vast, vast majority of sheriffs around this state are opposing these bills and all aspects of these bills is because they are concerned that this is a stepping stone to registration” of gun owners, he said.
“We will not tolerate that kind of intrusion on our personal property rights,” he said, generating loud applause from the standing-room-only crowd of more than 300.
During questions from the audience, Taketa was asked if he kept a database on county gun-owners. He said he did but that he would never share it:
“I was asked this question: ‘What if the state passed a law that required you had to turn over all of your database information to the state?’ I’ll tell you what my answer would be: ‘What database? I no longer have one,’” he said.
The El Paso Board of County Supervisors passed a resolution in January requiring that the county not “enforce any statutes, edicts, Presidential Directives, or other regulations and proclamations which conflict—and are expressly preempted by—the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings” regarding the Second Amendment.
Two Colorado Republican legislators are planning to repeal the magazine capacity limit with a voter referendum.
The five-law package passed by the legislature requires background checks for all private gun transactions, a $10 fee charged the buyer for such checks, the magazine capacity limit, a requirement that individuals seeking a concealed-carry permit take training classes in person (instead of over the Internet), and a requirement that anyone subject to a domestic violence protection order or convicted of domestic violence must surrender their firearms within 24 hours.