OPINION: No, Gun Ownership Isn't Under Threat
Reasonable guns laws have always been part of America's story, and have a place in it going forward.
By Donnie Johnston
COLUMNIST
Here we go again.
Every time a Democrat is elected, gun owners panic and start locking their doors to keep the police from coming and taking their weapons.
With several gun control bills – some that have merit and others that don’t - flying around the Virginia General Assembly, some gun owners are starting to see their blood pressure rise.
To that end, at least three area rural-county sheriffs (there are probably more, I just haven’t seen them) have posted videos on social media assuring their gun-owning constituents that they will live up to their constitutional oath and will never knock on doors and demand guns.
In other words, what they are saying is that even if Virginia passes a law that bans the sale of certain assault rifles and “ghost” guns, they won’t enforce it.
Right there they are telling the public that they WILL abandon their constitutional oath, which demands that they uphold all the laws of both their nation and the state.
If a new law is passed, that is a law they are sworn to uphold, no matter whether they personally like it or not. You can’t pick and choose the laws you want to enforce. If you do, the law means nothing.
This business of law enforcement officers telling citizens they won’t enforce certain gun laws only serves to embolden those radical gun owners who have often vowed that the only way the government would get their guns is over their dead body. In other words, they believe that if violence erupts, the police will be on their side.
The January 6, 2021, mob thought the same thing, that Donald Trump had their backs if they stormed the Capitol.
These sheriffs bring up, as always happens in these instances, the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, the right of the citizens to bear arms. Being a legal gun owner since I was 14 and hunting rabbits and trapping skunks, I am a firm believer in this precept. Still, I can see no true reason for Americans to own assault rifles. We just don’t need them!
“But what if the government comes after us? That’s what the founding fathers were worried about.”
If they come after us, they have the ability to come with tanks, cannons and atom bombs, if necessary. How does your assault rifle stand up against weapons like that?
Right here let’s point out that there already are guns that have been outlawed, like the machine guns that the gangs of the 1920s used to slaughter rival gangsters and innocent bystanders. And it is illegal to own a cannon or a tank or an atom bomb or even a sawed-off shotgun. Those are banned by law and those laws are enforced.
Now let’s go back to that constitutional oath and the big-chested boast that “I’m gonna uphold the Constitution the way the founding fathers wrote it!!”
Under the original Constitution, black people were property and not really humans. You gonna enforce that today?
Until the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1870, a sheriff would be compelled to arrest any black person who attempted to vote in a public election. That was your duty under your constitutional oath. You gonna do that today?
Until the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920, your constitutional oath required you to arrest any woman that attempted to vote. You gonna do that today?
If you were sheriff in 1925 your constitutional oath would have required you to arrest any convenience store clerk or saloon keeper that sold a six pack of beer or a shot of whiskey. And the person who bought it. You gonna do that today?
The point here is that the Constitution is a fluid document, not a fixed set of rules that can’t be changed. The founding fathers, in their wisdom, understood that laws must be changed and upgraded from time to time, usually depending on the progress of the country.
There are 27 amendments to the Constitution and over time there will likely be more, one of which may deal with firearms in some controversial way.
But the deal is this. Congress must pass any amendment bill by a two-thirds vote and then three-fourths of the states must approve that change. Congress cannot just erase the Second Amendment and come for your guns. Unfortunately, many Americans have no understanding of this and get all hot and bothered every time gun control is mentioned.
You can be sure that any law that the Virginia General Assembly passes and Gov. Spanberger signs will be tested all the way to the Supreme Court. The National Rifle Association and other such groups will see to that.
When sheriffs start declaring which laws they will or will not enforce, I get nervous. Your constitutional oath demands you enforce whatever laws are on the books, not just the ones you agree with.
A few years ago, a Culpeper County sheriff vowed in an open meeting that if gun control became a reality, he would deputize every citizen to make sure they had the right to carry a gun. That vow led to him selling deputy badges and being convicted of such in federal court.
This country is under enough internal strain without boasting sheriffs taking to social media.
Turn down the rhetoric, boys.
Save the big promises for the campaign trail.
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As someone who has worn both a uniform and a holster, I read Donnie Johnston’s column with great interest. I served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, Kuwait, and Bosnia, and I have owned guns my entire adult life. As a teenager I was proud to be an NRA member and to earn multiple marksmanship patches that I wore on my jacket. Over time, my interests changed and so did the NRA, and I have not been a member since the early 1960s.
I also come from a family of law enforcement officers in police departments and sheriffs’ offices, so I see the gun issue through several lenses at once. I support the Second Amendment, but as a protection for responsible individuals – not as an “any gun, any time, anywhere” license. Assault‑style rifles are designed for war and mass killing, not for home defense or hunting. National polling consistently shows that most Americans, including many gun owners, support measures like universal background checks, and slim majorities now back an assault‑weapons ban or stricter limits on these rifles.
From that perspective, Mr. Johnston’s concerns about sheriffs publicly announcing what laws they will and will not enforce are well‑founded. No one in law enforcement gets to take an oath and then pick and choose which laws to honor. Voters should take careful note of any sheriff who suggests otherwise and weigh that record seriously when deciding on his or her re‑election.
Trump pardoned Sheriff Jenkins.