An Associated Press account last week reported that a few West Virginia sheriffs have said they will not enforce “any new federal laws that they believe violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms.”
Some of our readers may well want to know, “How can they do that and get away with it?”
The sheriffs are not alone in their resistance. Some governors and state representatives have said the same thing.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has asked his state legislature to make it illegal to enforce any executive order by the president that violates the Constitution.
Wyoming’s legislature is considering a bill that would make any federal limitation on guns unenforceable in that state, while specifying that federal agents who try to enforce such restrictions are committing a state felony.
Our purpose here is not to argue the merit of such positions, but to offer a possible explanation to those who may reasonably ask, “But isn’t the job of the sheriff to enforce and uphold the law?”
It may seem a matter of semantics, but the oath taken by sheriffs and other public officials in West Virginia and elsewhere requires them to support the constitutions of both the United States and their state, and to faithfully discharge the duties of office. The oath taken by the President of the United States is similar, and includes this: “will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
While they swear (or affirm) to support and defend the Constitution, nothing is said about enforcing or upholding the law — which, like anything else, is always subject to change ... or the whims of legislators.
Remember, though, that this is America. We, the People, have options open to us that many others around the world do not have.
Every few years at election time, one such option allows us to remove those officials whose idea of how to discharge their duties doesn’t live up to our standards, or to continue them in office if we agree with the way they do it.
Editorials
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Resistance
Resistance
How can they say they won’t enforce the law?
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High priority
Maryland school officials on Tuesday put an exclamation point on the need to take student-athlete concussions more seriously.
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Cashing in
As anyone who lives in the area knows, economic gains have been hard to come by in recent years. The opening of the Rocky Gap Casino Resort is one of the biggest boosts the region has seen in some time.
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Why have the media been silent all this time?
When I read the Cumberland Times-News Editorial this morning, Friday, May 17, entitled, “Outrageous,” I laughed like a kid at a birthday party!
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What are chances this much money will be spent on road?
I was intrigued by cost data summarized in reporter Kathy Mellott’s recent article, “Completing southern link of U.S. Route 219 said to be best use of highway funds,” which appeared in the Cumberland Times-News on Tuesday May 14 (Page 1A).
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School board should be doing better job with less money
The Allegany County Teachers Association (ACTA) board of directors recently submitted a letter to the editor asking the Allegany County commissioners to fully fund the Board of Education’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year (“Commissioners should fund school board request,” April 29 Times-News).
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Better ‘Click It’
If you notice more police on the highway this week, it’s for a couple of reasons.
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They do bite
This week is National Dog Bite Prevention Week. For anyone thinking that is not such a big deal, consider that 4.7 million Americans annually are bitten by dogs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Stop buying licenses; let them find the money somewhere else
A few months ago, I received two cards from the National Rifle Association. These were dealing with a legislative alert.
They asked that I should contact Sen. George Edwards and Delegate Kevin Kelly concerning the anti-gun legislation. -
Strength of gun laws is not reflected in grisly statistics
According to the FBI’s uniform crime reports, California had the highest number of gun murders in 2011 with 1,220, which makes up 68 percent of all murders in the state that year and equates to 3.25 murders per 100,000 people.
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An old story
What for years has been an on-again, off-again battle over funding between the Allegany County Commissioners and the Allegany County Board of Education seems to be growing even uglier.
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