Union County Sheriff Boyd Rasmussen has joined the list of 14 other sheriffs in Oregon pledging not to enforce any new federal bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, according to a report from Oregonlive.com yesterday.
The sheriff made his announcement before a 60-person meeting of the Union County Republican Central Committee lunch, where he also stated that he did not expect Congress to pass any new federal gun control laws. The sheriff's announcement makes him the 15th Oregon sheriff vowing that he will refuse to enforce the proposed federal gun laws. There are at total of 36 counties in Oregon.
The Sheriff also joins Parnell McNamara of McLennan County, Texas who also publicly took a stand against the Obama gun laws in the last 24 hours. News station KTBC reported yesterday that McNamara, when explaining his refusal to enforce the proposed gun ban, said "I can never disarm a law abiding citizen in this county or this state and I won't. I won't uphold those federal laws that infringe on our God-given rights."
The announcements of Sheriffs Rasmussen and McNamara add to the list of 127 sheriffs across the nation who have expressly taken similar positions. That list continues to grow daily.
While President Obama and Vice-President Biden continue to push for new gun control laws following the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, public support for such legislation appears to be waning. As reported here earlier, a New York City group calling itself "One Million Moms for Gun Control" could must only 200 people for its gun control march on City Hall.
Moreover, a Gallup Poll released yesterday revealed that the country generally supports new federal control legislation -- at least in theory. In practice, however, Americans do not hold gun control as a priority. The economy still continues to dominate national concerns, and people would rather support school safety and mental health measures by a 2-to-1 margin over the President's proposed gun bans.
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