With a large majority of Virginia counties declaring as Second Amendment sanctuaries, other states are taking notice and expanding their own Second Amendment sanctuaries, including Texas and Nevada.
Currently 34 Texas counties call themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries, among around 350 counties across the United States. Virginia has as many as 75 counties that are now Second Amendment sanctuaries, with more in play.
Virginia’s Tazewell County is the first county to mobilize a militia to protect residents’ Second Amendment rights. In Culpeper County, Viriginia, Sheriff Scott Jenkins pledged to deputize citizens in order to protect their right to bear arms.
“Every Sheriff and Commonwealth Attorney in Virginia will see the consequences if our General Assembly passes further unnecessary gun restrictions,” said Jenkins on Facebook. “I plan to properly screen and deputize thousands of our law-abiding citizens to protect their constitutional right to own firearms.”
“We should be watching Virginia, and everywhere else,” said Anderson County Judge Robert Johnston in Texas to the Herald-Press. “We should always be aware of what’s going on in our country.”
Johnston said his county hasn’t even considered declaring a sanctuary status over Second Amendment rights. “This is East Texas,” he said. “No one has any question as to how we feel about the Second Amendment.”
In Virginia county leaders have a Constitutional authority to organize a militia. Counties can draft law-abiding gun owners into a local militia, organizing citizens and qualifying individuals and their arms.
Texas Sheriff’s Association Executive Director Steve Westbrook argued that Second Amendment sanctuary counties are constitutionally valid and that sheriffs have discretion on how the sanctuary status is applied.
“It is every sheriff’s duty to uphold the Constitution of the United States, the Second Amendment included,” said Westbrook.
See Also: Nevada Sheriff Will Enforce Gun Confiscation Law, Faces Recall
In Nevada, the issue of Second Amendment sanctuaries is more contentious. Even after declaring opposition to “red flag” laws, Nevada’s Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Allen said he would continue to enforce them.
“They’re taking up a fight against me on something the legislature has to do, and they think I have the authority not to follow the law,” Allen said according to Law Enforcement Today. “I do oppose this law. However, it’s my not my job to oppose a law; my job is to enforce the law.”
Thirteen out of 17 Nevada sheriffs have said they will not enforce red flag laws. Because he tacitly supports them, Nevada residents are looking to recall Sheriff Allen.