From Polk County News 4/25/2019
Politickin’
County Commission Passes Gun Sanctuary Resolution
RESOLUTION OF THE GOVERNING BODYOF POLK COUNTY, TENNESSEEDECLARING POLK COUNTY, TN A GUN SANCTUARY COUNTY
On April 18'", 2019 on behalfofthe citizens of Polk County, TN, the Polk County Board of Commissioners state and accept as true the following:
I. The Declaration of lndependence states that people are "endowed by their Creator with Certain unalienable rights,... to se nre these rights, Governments are instituted among men... deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed".
2. John A.dams wrote in IA Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765): " I say Rights, for such they(the people):have, undoubtedly, antecedent to all earthly government,Rights, that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws, Rights derived from the Great Legislature of the universe."
3. Natural Law Rights, given to each of us by our Creator are the basis of our Constitution by which they are protected and secured to each of us. Natural Law Rights, including tbat of self protection, are guaranteed by our laws, our history, and our traditions.
4. It is the natural tendency of civil government to expand beyond the limits of its rightful Constitutional authority and to usurp powers which have not been given to it through the delegated consent of the governed.
5. Whenever the uses of government are perverted, individual sovereignty is overly endangered or threatened, and all other means of redress are ineffective, the people may, and in fact ought to, force the re-establishmentment of the original constitu-tional limits of government.
6. Resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is the obligation of every patriot, as not to do so is destructive to the good and happiness of mankind. In fact, it is the duty of the people of Polk County TN, through the actions of their lesser mag-istrates, namely local elected officials and Sheriff, to challenge the civil government when and where it exceeds or threatens to exceed its bounds.
7. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of our Nation.
8. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America states: "a well regulated militia being neces-sary to the security of a Free State, theRight of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".
9. The U.S. Supreme Court in Miranda v. Arizona (1966) stated that "Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them”.
10. The U.S Supreme Court in the District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) decision affirmed that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is not connected in any way to service in a militia.
11. The U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Miller (1939) stated that firearms that are part of the ordinary military equip-ment with use that could contribute to the common defense are protected by the Second Amendment.
12. The Fourteenth Amendment to th Constitution of the United States, Section 1 states: "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor deny to any person within its jurisdic-tion the equal protection of the laws."
13. The U.S. Supreme Court in the McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) decision affirmed that a Person's Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is further secured by the "due Process" and the "privileges and immunities" clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision also protects rights closely related to the Second Amendment, namely the right to manufacture, transfer, accessories and ammunition,
14. The Tennessee State Constitution Article 1, Section 26 states that the citizens of this state have a right to keep and to bear arms for their common defense; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms with a view to prevent crime,
15. The Tennessee State Constitution Article 1, Section 24 states" That the sure and certain defense of a free people, is a well regulated militia; and, as standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to freedom, they ought to be avoided as far as the cir-cumstances and safety of the community will admit; and that in all cases the military shall be kept in strict subordination to the civil authority".
17. The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America states; "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
18. The U.S. Supreme Court found in Prinz v. United States (1997) that the Federal government cannot compel law enforce-ment officers of the states to enforce federal laws as it would increase the power of the Federal government far beyond that which the Constitution intends
.I. The unalienable right to keep and bear arms, as specified in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Consti-tution of Tennessee, and further upheld by subsequent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court
2. The Right, as originally written and understood, to keep and bear arms for self defense, personal safety, protection of one's family and in defense of one's community and county ·
3. The right to manufacture, transfer, purchase and sell firearms and ammunition designed for those purposes outlined above, rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of Tennessee.
Furthermore, auy regulation of the right to keep and bear arms or affiliated firearm rights that violates the Second, Ninth, Tenth or Fourteenth Amenedments of the U.S. Constitution, that violates Article 1, Sections 24 and 26 of the Tennessee Constitution, or that violates numerous related Supreqi.e Court Decisions including those listed above shall be regarded by the people of, on, or in Polk County to be unconstitutional, a transgression of the Supreme Law of the Land and its spirit of individual sovereignty, and, therefore by necessity, unenforceable and invalid from the outset,Moreover, the<eriminal misuse offireJlrms is due to the fact that criminals do not obey laws and this is not a reason to abrogi\te or abridge the unalienable, Constitutionally guaranteed rights of law abiding citizens. The last protectors .of the Constitution of the United States are we the People of the United States and our ability to fulfill that roll successfully rests on our Second Amendment rights.
Therefore, the Polk County TN government will not authorize or appropriate government funds, resources, employees, agencies, contractors, buildings, detention centers or offices for the purpose of enforcing or assisting in the enforcement of any element of such acts, laws, orders, mandates, rules or regulation that infringe on the right by the people to keep and bear arms as described and defined in detail above.
Now, therefore be it resolved by the Polk County Commission meeting in regular session this 18th day of April, 2019 at the Copper Basin Community Center in Ducktown, Tennessee that Polk County Tennessee is officially declared a Gun Sanctuary county.This resolution shall become effective on the passage, the public welfare requiring it.
