Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
As a result of it’s regular meeting last Wednesday Feb. 5, the county’s Administrative and Legislative Committee considered a Second Amendment Sanctuary County Resolution, but would effectively take no action on the measure. The same resolution was initially brought to the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors during their Jan. 21 meeting by District 13 Supervisor Calvin Callahan. During that meeting, supervisors ultimately voted (13-9) to send the matter to the A&L committee for further review.
Callahan presented the resolution to the board on Jan. 21, citing recent legislative efforts in Madison regarding gun control. “Here in Wisconsin our governor and members of the legislation have pulled gun control laws,” said Callahan. “For example assembly bill 573, also known as the Red Flag law, states: ‘Upon receiving a petition filed by any person, a court shall schedule an injunction hearing, the court shall also issue a restraining order prohibiting the respondent from possessing a firearm and order they surrender all firearms to law enforcement. And just to mention, that last part about surrendering firearms to law enforcement, is before the court even hears the case. This proposed legislation has one intent and that is to chip away at our second amendment rights.”
Many Lincoln County residents attended the January Lincoln County Board meeting and voiced their opinions on the resolution. Half of those addressing the board during a designated public comment session supported the resolution, while the other half did not.
At the Administrative and Legislative Committee meeting last Wednesday, Callahan would yet again bring the resolution forward; re-enforcing his will to get the resolution passed in his opening comments.
“I’d like to see this get passed so we can reaffirm our constituents of Lincoln County that their second amendment rights are safe,” said Callahan. “If there were to be any type of law that gets passed intruding on those rights, we will fight to protect those rights here in Lincoln County.”
Following his opening statement Callahan would make a motion to approve the resolution, however a failure to obtain a second would stop the motion in it’s tracks.
County Board Vice-Chair and District 2 Supervisor Robert Weaver would then attempt to make a motion to bring the resolution back to the Administrative and Legislative Committee in six months, in an attempt to keep it from going back to the County Board. However after being informed that he can’t stop the resolution from being brought back to the board of supervisors, Weaver would withdraw his motion.
In an interview with Callahan following the meeting, he explained that he wasn’t surprised by how the meeting went.
“I expected this to happen,” Callahan stated. “This was just a way for the board to try and kill this resolution without doing it in front of a lot of community members. The meeting was at 8 o’clock in the morning and most people have to be at work and can’t attend meetings at that time, so this was a plan to get rid of this resolution.”
“I’m not going to give up on this resolution,” Callahan added. “I plan on taking the resolution to a different committee and then back to the board following the spring elections. We’ve got to be proactive in passing this resolution. We have to send a message to the state that we will be protective of our second amendment rights in Lincoln County.”