Local governments cannot ban police from enforcing certain gun laws in ruling that could have national ramifications.
An Oregon court dealt a blow to the state’s “second amendment sanctuary” movement, deciding on Wednesday that local governments cannot ban police from enforcing certain gun laws in a ruling that could hold national ramifications for anti-gun control efforts.
At the center of the lawsuit was a 2020 measure passed in Columbia county, a conservative area in the Democratic state, that argued state and federal gun laws did not apply in the county and banned local officials from enforcing the regulations. The rural region was one of some 1,200 in the US, from Virginia to New Mexico to Florida, to pass a second amendment sanctuary resolution.
The Oregon state court of appeals ruled the law, which included fines for officials who enforce most federal and state gun laws, violated a law granting the state the authority to regulate firearms. The ordinance would effectively “create a ‘patchwork quilt’ of firearms laws in Oregon”, the court found.
“It would have the potential to lead to uncertainty for firearms owners concerning the legality of their conduct as they travel from county to county,” Judge Douglas Tookey wrote.
The gun sanctuary movement, which first took off nationwide in 2018, had not yet faced a major legal challenge. The ruling will have wide implications in Oregon, where multiple localities have declared themselves second amendment sanctuaries. The state attorney general has sued two other counties that declared themselves sanctuaries. One of those counties eventually rescinded their ordinance.
Article URL : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/16/oregon-second-amendment-sanctuary-decision