Effingham County, Ill., has declared itself a sanctuary county for gun owners.
During a county board meeting on Monday, members voted 8-1 to adopt a measure to prevent local authorities from enforcing any laws passed by the state that would “unconstitutionally restrict the Second Amendment.”
Board member David Campbell explained that the uptick in state House and Senate bills that aim to restrict those who would exercise their Second Amendment rights led to the board’s decision. “[We] decided it’s time for someone to take a hard stand.”
The resolution was drafted in the same vein as one passed in March by Iroquois County, Ill., which was explained in a statement by Iroquois board member Chad McGinnis. “The County of Iroquois firmly believes and supports the 2nd Amendment and strongly encourages other counties to join us in telling the Illinois General Assembly to stop infringing on the rights of our citizens.”
Effingham County State’s Attorney Bryan Kibler noted that the action was largely symbolic, saying that the resolution would have no power over the decisions made by law enforcement. In spite of that, Kibler and the other board members still felt that it was important to make the statement. “So we thought … why don’t we just make this a sanctuary county like they would for undocumented immigrants. So we did flip the script on it.”