Group Seeks Vote On Required-Gun Measure Spot On Ballot Sought After ‘No’ By Benewah County Commissioners

Benewah County gun supporters say they’ll go to the voters, since officials are unwilling to touch even a watered-down gun measure.

“I’m looking forward to election day,” said Ken Rouw, president of the Tenth Amendment Coalition.

“That was really our plan to begin with,” said Rouw. “We figured we’d see how the political landscape was here first.”

In November, the St. Maries-based group collected more than 1,000 signatures asking the county commissioners to pass an ordinance requiring a gun and shells in every home.

The commissioners refused. County attorney Nancy Wolff said such a law would be patently unconstitutional.

Nor will the commissioners consider a non-binding resolution, they said in phone interviews Monday. If gun laws aren’t broken, the three men said, they see no reason to try to fix them.

‘I don’t think we need to,” said Commissioner George “Bud” Mills Jr.

“I didn’t see the purpose,” said N.L. “Bud” McCall, also a commissioner. “All those people have guns now.”

Mills and McCall said three months ago they might go along with a non-binding resolution in favor of guns. But they said Monday they remain unconvinced Benewah County needs even that.

“That would be kind of like passing the buck,” said Mills.

If the group is concerned about federal gun laws, McCall said, it should be addressing Idaho’s congressional delegation.

“We’re not against what they (the group) want to do. We just don’t see what we have to do with it,” he said.

Like many people in Benewah County, all three commissioners own guns. Commissioner Jack Buell, who has opposed an ordinance or resolution from the start, is a member of the National Rifle Association.

“It’s hard for me. I love guns,” Buell said. “We think they already have that right to bear arms. We don’t believe we have a problem in Benewah County.”

Rouw said the group will draft the wording of the ballot measure this week.

He said it’s likely to be stronger than the watered-down resolution, but he stopped short of saying it would require a gun and ammunition in every home.

Rouw said the group will probably donate money to the county to offset the cost of holding the election.

“We have no desire or intention to be adversarial,” he said.

The commissioners wouldn’t speculate as to the ballot measure’s chances.

“As a voter, I wouldn’t vote for it,” Mills said.

“If they pass it on the ballot, more power to them,” said McCall. “The public (will have) decided. We didn’t.”

Commissioner Buell acknowledged that the volatile issue might come back to haunt the commissioners at election season.

“I wonder,” he said. “But we’re put in there to do what we believe in, and that’s the price you pay.”