Defying the Constitution

I appreciated James Ramsey’s June 8 letter, which referenced U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’ dissenting 2008 opinion that the Second Amendment applies to state militia service only.

In 2011, former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack, a hero of the militia movement in the 1990s, formed the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the fear of federal gun confiscation by United Nations troops is very real to extreme-right groups such as the John Birch Society, Oath Keepers and the Tenth Amendment Center. More than 400 of the nation’s 3,080 county sheriff’s have signed the CSPOApledge to “oppose and disallow” new gun measures. According to Mack, many sheriffs who signed the pledge are willing to lay down their lives rather than allow any more federal control of guns.

My concern is, if your local county sheriff signed the pledge, is he willing to create his own county militia of deputized citizens to fight the feds? If so, the U.S. Constitution does not grant that authority to sheriffs, and they can be removed from office for not enforcing the law.

James Perkins

Colville