Commissioners take aim at fed gun restrictions

Adopting a newfound role as defenders of the Second Amendment, the Weld County Board of Commissioners took a very public stand last week on American’s right to bear arms.
    Voting 4-0 with Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer abstaining, the board enacted a resolution in support of the amendment, stating that it “protects the rights of self-defense, defense of others and defense of the nation, and assumes the rights to hunting and sport shooting.”
    Offering that 70 million people, or more than half of U.S. households possess firearms, Commissioners Douglas Rademacher, Sean Conway, William Garcia and Mike Freeman voted up the measure, entitled, “Expression of Support for the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article II, Section 13 of the Colorado Constitution Protections of the Right to Bear Arms by Law Abiding Citizens.”
    More style than actual policy, the resolution notes that “studies by the National Academies of Sciences and the Centers for Disease Control have found no persuasive evidence that “gun control” laws reduce crime, and that “today, Americans are safer from violent crime than they have been at any time since the mid-1960s.”
    The move echoes the sentiments of Weld County Sheriff John Cooke, who publicly stated his opposition to federal gun laws he believes would do little. Cooke, in turn, takes support from the County Sheriffs of Colorado, who also object to federal controls.
    The commission’s resolution also takes issue with “international treaties that will infringe on the Second Amendment rights of American citizens, including, without limitation, the United Nations (UN) Arms Trade Treaty, Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms (“CIFTA”), or the UN Programme of Action.”

Contact Staff Writer Gene Sears at gsears@metrowestnewspapers.com.