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In the wake of the highly questionable surge in school shootings and the long-awaited gun grabbing effort being promoted by the President, lawmakers, and the mainstream media, hundreds of American sheriffs have now gone on the record to state publicly that they will not enforce any new gun laws such as the ones being proposed in the halls of the U.S. Congress.
While the fact that such grassroots political pressure exists in an amount that would warrant such statement by sheriffs all across the country, the fact also remains that many of these public officials are merely cashing in on an exploitable situation to score political approval from their constituents – political approval for a stance they never intend to honor. This much is apparent to anyone who is even a casual observer of political discourse or the development of the overarching agenda inside the United States and elsewhere in the world.
My case in point is Kershaw County Sheriff Jim Matthews.
Sheriff Matthews has been the subject of my articles several times in the past; once after he declared an activist to be a “domestic extremist” after the individual had merely “liked” an article on Facebook and then again after Matthews developed a program of round-the-clock checkpoints in Kershaw County, South Carolina.
Matthews’ conversion of Kershaw County into a virtual police state, as well as his continued attack on all things free, should thus have raised the suspicions as to the sincerity of many of the sheriffs who had attached their names to the “Will Not Enforce” list regarding the latest attempts at eliminating the Second Amendment.
Yet, considering the positions and statements made by so many other sheriffs, Matthews own position was much more tepid when it came to actually defending Constitutional rights, a task which is clearly not the strong suit of his department and administration.
Indeed, Matthews’ position was that he was not “going to take your guns,” is an eerily similar claim which was also made by Barack Obama.
Matthews stated, “I’m not going to get rid of mine. I don’t have a problem with assault weapon owners who follow the law. My problem is with thugs who should be in jail who get their hands on guns.”
Of course, at issue is the fact that if new gun laws are passed banning assault weapons, assault weapons owners will no longer be following the law. This is why Matthews and other sheriffs were asked the question as to whether or not they would enforce such laws to begin with.
Matthews went on to ask South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson for his opinion on the coming Federal gun grab. Essentially, Matthews requested AG Wilson to explain to him his responsibility as Sheriff when faced with an unconstitutional law.
Still, Matthews stated that he does not believe sheriffs can stop federal agents from enforcing these laws in his jurisdiction.
“A lot of sheriffs want to be able to fall back on what the AG says on what we lawfully have to do or don’t have to do,” Matthews said.
That opinion has finally arrived. Unfortunately, it confirms the weakness of state governments as well as the complete disregard for Constitutional, civil, and human rights at the federal, state, and local levels.
According to Attorney General Wilson, if federal law enforcement officers attempt to enforce unconstitutional gun laws or even confiscate existing weapons, then neither state law nor state law enforcement officials can stand in the way. Going further, Wilson suggests that, if state or local law enforcement officials do attempt to impede federal assaults on the rights of South Carolinians, these state law enforcement officials would themselves be subject to criminal prosecution.
Yet Wilson’s opinion goes even further than stating that state and local law enforcement are unable to actually protect the rights of their citizens from federal assaults, it claims that federal agents are granted a type of immunity from state prosecution even if they are clearly violating Constitutional rights.
The opinion states that “federal agents are immune from state prosecution even when their conduct violated internal agency regulations or exceeded their express authority.”
This is quite a concerning statement to say the least. As the Kershaw County Patriots (KCP) wrote in the article, “SC Attorney General: Come Get The Guns!”
This means that an agent could come to your home, break into your home, ransack the place, seize anything, all without a warrant and he would be immune from state prosecution or even interference with his ransacking.
KCP continues by writing,
Instead of protecting citizens sheriffs, with the AG’s blessing, will stand down and let it happen. Matthews has been quoted saying ‘I’m not going to take your guns’ but he did not tell the people he will instead stand by and watch as federal agents seize weapons. In fact if a citizen was to refuse to give up his weapons to federal agents the sheriff would be forced to protect that federal agent from any action impeding the enforcement of federal law.
Yet, where Wilson’s opinion truly falls apart is his statement “…that the Department (Kershaw County Sheriff’s dept.) should neither interfere with nor otherwise attempt to impede federal law enforcement officers as they perform their lawful duties to enforce federal laws, and who act necessary and proper within federal authority.”
