127 sheriffs won't enforce Obama gun laws; specter of 'door to door' gun search

Over 127 sheriffs pledge Obama gun legislation will not be enforced.

Breaking news: Sheriffs Rasmussen of Oregon and McNamara of Texas declared against the proposed Obama gun control laws yesterday. See here for details and the impact of the latest Gallup Poll showing weakening support for gun control nationwide.

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Yesterday, Collin County Sheriff Terry Box of Texas became the latest Sheriff to publicly pledge that he would not enforce proposed federal gun bans should they become law, according to Dallas News. Sheriff Box joins a growing number -- now at least 127 -- of sheriffs across the nation denouncing President Obama's proposed gun control legislation. Sheriff Box explained that recent gun deaths have prompted politicians to pass laws that would:

seriously erode the constitutional rights of innocent and law abiding citizens. Neither I, nor any of my deputies, will participate in the enforcement of laws that violate our precious constitutional rights, including our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

According to CBS News on Monday, a dozen Missouri sheriffs -- including newly-elected Osage County Sheriff Michael Dixon --have signed on to Sheriff's Heiss' letter to President Obama, stating that they refused to enforce the proposed gun laws. The names of all the Missouri sheriffs have not yet been released.

Dissension in the ranks.

One lawman -- Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson -- has publicly disagreed with the growing position taken by his fellow sheriffs. According to in a report filed this morning by NBC News, Sheriff Robinson questioned the other sheriffs, saying:

Public safety professionals serving in the executive branch do not have the constitutional authority, responsibility, and in most cases, the credentials to determine the constitutionality of any issue. Law enforcement officials should leave it to the courts to decide whether a law is constitutional or not.

Door-to-door gun searches; Feds, like New York, cannot enforce gun bans.

Other law enforcement officials, while not publicly taking sides on the President's proposed gun laws, have questioned how new federal gun legislation would be enforced. As reported by WKTV on Friday, Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol has already examined New York's new, toughest-in-the-nation 39-page law. The law bans currently legally-possessed assault weapons, and requires owners of such weapons to register them with the state within a year or sell them to an authorized dealer.

But Sheriff Maciol wonders how the law could ever be enforced -- aside from searching door to door for such weapons, which raises the specter of massive Fourth Amendment search and seizure violations. Says Sheriff Maciol:

We don't know where these guns are because they're not registered and again I will not and I certainly don't have the manpower to start going to every person in Oneida County to see if they have a gun. I mean, we're not going to be doing that.

Thus, as popular support for new gun laws gradually cools with the passage of time, and reason takes the place of "knee jerk gun control," gun rights activists may discover that the President's gun control proposals ultimately have no teeth.

Sheriff opposition to President Obama's proposed gun laws reaches at least 127.

At least 127, but possible 139 (counting pending declarations from 12 Missouri sheriffs) now publicly oppose proposed federal gun bans and will not enforce them should they become law. We provide the list of those sheriffs to you below, current as of Jan 23, 2013.

Note: We are constantly searching for and updating our list with verifiable "non-enforcement" sheriffs. If you know of other sheriffs in and around your community who should be included here, please add a comment below with an appropriate link for inclusion and credit.

Alabama sheriffs (3) (as reported by local news station WHNT, gun rights organization Oath Keepers, media outlet Dothanfirst);

Houston County Sheriff Andy Hughes
Madison County Sheriff Blake Dorning
Morgan County Sheriff Ana Franklin

Arizona sheriffs (2) (according to news outlets TPM and Reason);

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Yavapai County Sheriff Scott Mascher

Califonia sheriffs (13) (according to The Modesto Bee, local news stations KRNVand KFSN, and CSPOA);

Del Norte County Sheriff Dean Wilson
El Dorado County Sheriff John D’Agostini
Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims
Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey
Lassen County Sheriff Dean Growden
Mendocino County Sheriff Thomas Allman
Modoc County Sheriff Mike Poindexter
Plumas County Sheriff Greg Hagwood
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko
Tehama County Sheriff David Hencraft
Trinity County Sheriff Bruce Haney
Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey (letter)
Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson (letter)

Colorado sheriffs (4) (as reported by local television station KWGN, the El Paso County Sheriff's Official website, the Mesa County Sheriff's Official Facebook page, the Denver Post);

El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa
Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith
Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey
Weld County Sheriff John Cooke

Delaware sheriffs (1) (according to CSPOA)

Sussex County Sheriff Jeff Christopher

Georgia sheriffs (3) (as reported by the Cherokee Tribune, MinnPost Christian Science Monitor and CSPOA);

Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison
Gilmer County Sheriff Stacy Nicholson
Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry

Florida sheriffs (3) (according to local news station WPTV and Sheriff McKiethen's personal Facebook page)

Bay County Florida Sheriff Frank McKiethen
Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott
Martin County Sheriff Bill Snyder

Idaho sheriffs (2) (according to news station KIFI and newspaper Idaho Statesman);

Canyon County, Idaho Sheriff Kieran Donahue
Madison County Sheriff Roy Klingler

Indiana sheriffs (1) (according to CSPOA)

Elkhart County Sheriff Brad Rogers

Kansas sheriffs (1) (according to the Kansas City Star)

Johnson County Sheriff Frank Denning

Kentucky sheriffs (2) ( as reported by NBC News and CSPOA)

Bath County Sheriff John Snedegar
Jackson County Sheriff Denny Peyman

Minnesota sheriffs (1) (according to NewsMax)

Pine County Sheriff Robin Cole

Missouri sheriffs (4) (as reported on BeforeItsNews, IRN News, news stations KOAM and KCTV, and CSPOA);

Johnson County Sheriff Charles Heiss (letter)
Lawrence County Sheriff Brad DeLay (letter)
Livingston County Sheriff Steve Cox (letter)
Osage County Michael Dixon

Montana sheriffs (2) (according to radio station 96.3TheBlaze and CSPOA)

Ravalli County Sheriff Chris Hoffman
Sanders County Sheriff Tom Rummel (letter)

Nevada sheriffs (1) (as reported by local news station KRNV)

Humboldt County Sheriff Ed Kilgore

New Mexico sheriffs (30) (according to the Portales News-Tribune, Guns.com and CSPOA)

Roosevelt county sheriff Darren Hooker and the New Mexico Sheriff’s Association (30 out of 33 New Mexico sheriffs)

New York sheriffs (2) (according to CSPOA)

Otsego County Sheriff Richard Devlin Jr.
Schoharie County Sheriff Tony Desmond

Oklahoma sheriffs (1) (according to CSPOA)

Wagoner County Sheriff Bob ‘Big Block’ Colbert

Oregon sheriffs (14) (as reported by Fox News, online newspaper OregonLive, local radio station KCMB, local television station KMTR, Herald News, gun rights organization Oregon Firearms and CSPOA);