Nearly four years after hundreds filled St. Clair County Board of Commissioners meetings — often personal firearms in tow — officials are slated to consider another Second Amendment sanctuary resolution this month.
A resolution from Commissioner Dave Rushing is on the county board’s judiciary and public safety committee agenda on Thursdays as a conceptual initiative.
The proposal comes after the last push for a Second Amendment-related measure in early 2020 when board members shifted their position, ultimately passing a resolution without the word “sanctuary."
Now, with a new board, Rushing said the thought process behind his resolution is similar, but it has a renewed motivation of its own.
“The new red flag laws that Gov. Whitmer has put in the new order, that got my attention again,” Rushing said Tuesday.
Earlier this year, Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation, allowing family members, mental health professionals, and partners to petition a judge to have firearms removed from those believed to pose a danger to themselves and others — also known as extreme risk protection orders. She additionally later signed off on a bill that temporarily bans those with domestic violence convictions from possessing and purchasing guns and ammunition in the state.
“I think it’s very prudent that we do address this,” Rushing said. “Part of it would be if you have a girlfriend, boyfriend, husband wife, and you get in an argument with them, or for whatever reason, you throw a piece of bread at them, potentially you could be charged with domestic violence as a misdemeanor — potentially anyway.
“I’m going to (refer to a) far-case scenario. You could be investigated and then your guns could be confiscated. Then, for eight years on a misdemeanor charge, you would not be able to purchase a weapon. So, I think it definitely needs the attention.”
County commissioners will meet for committee sessions at 6 p.m. Thursday in the board meeting room at 200 Grand River Ave. in Port Huron.
What does the resolution say? What does sanctuary mean?
Four years ago, amid a sweep in conservative regions, officials in counties across the state and country took up sanctuary declarations as a front against gun safety measures, though, at the time, nothing was emerging in Michigan’s then-Republican majority legislature.
The push brought gun rights supporters to St. Clair County Board meetings — at first in favor of a resolution proposed by former state Rep. Gary Eisen, and later, with a slew of other demands, ranging from funding a local militia to different versions of the resolution itself.
The word sanctuary is commonly used as a symbol against enforcing laws deemed unconstitutional in U.S. citizens’ rights to bear arms under the Second Amendment. And in Rushing’s proposed measure, it details sanctuary policies as those advocating “not to strictly enforce gun laws in any manner that infringes upon a citizens’ rights” at the local and state level.
However, the resolution — and county officials, themselves — also emphasizes duties of elected law enforcement figures, particularly the county sheriff and prosecutor.
“It does give complete statutory duty to our prosecuting attorney and our sheriff their duty, as stated in the Constitution,” Rushing said. “It wouldn’t be trying to take their duties away, that’s not the intent of this at all.”
Sheriff Mat King and Prosecutor Mike Wendling said they're charged with upholding state law as written.
“Any resolution that the board decides to pass or not pass is a declaration of their feeling on the matter but constitutionally cannot be direction to myself," King said. "I am an elected official, and I am charged with enforcing the law.”
Wendling said, “The board of commissioners can’t affect the ability of a county prosecutor to prosecute the law. I have an ethical and professional obligation to follow state laws as its written. Whether it’s a First Amendment issue or an abortion issue, or it’s an issue that has to do with assisted suicide or any of those things, my personal opinion on those issues and those topics really don’t come into play.”
The biggest difference of all, according to County Board Chairman Jeff Bohm, is that Rushing’s Second Amendment measure is going before a new board and four commissioners who weren’t in office in 2020.
That includes Commissioner Lisa Beedon, the board’s only Democrat, as well as Dave Vandenbossche, Joi Torello, and Steve Simasko.
And this time, Rushing said he anticipated more support.
If not to prevent enforcement of strict gun laws, then why?
Bohm said the county procecutor and sheriff, as well as the county’s attorney, have looked at the measure.
“Basically, you can’t tell them how to do their jobs,” the board chairman said. “I think all of them have taken the opinion that they’re going to uphold the Constitution. I just think it’s a reaffirmation of something that we had done previously.”
But when asked how he reconciled the dichotomy between the “sanctuary” idea and not impeding law enforcement duties, Rushing said, “Well, take the opposite, if you were to take a county — and you can pick whichever one you want — that wants very strong gun control, this is a statement. And every resolution is a political statement, as all those resolutions are. They kind of bind the people that vote on it, for or against, by their statement, and then, we’re letting the people we represent know where we stand.”
Instead, the commissioner said it was a matter of the board’s own statutory duty of taking care of the county’s finances, adding, “We would not restrict any funds for anything within the county unless it specifically would take away Second Amendment rights, and I want to stress that we will not be taking any funds away from the county sheriff. I back Mat King very well.”
Wendling admitted he understood the inference that the county board could dictate their duties was there but doubted it — for example, having resources restricted on a budget level — would come to pass.
In the unlikely event, the said, "If that became the application, then obviously we would have to take legal action as it relates to the serviceability of the county.”
Still, Jim Frank, who chairs St. Clair County Democrats, has voiced opposition to sanctuary resolutions in the past and called Rushing’s “far-case scenario” example “absurd.”
“He’s making domestic violence seem unimportant, and that I just object to,” he said. “Domestic violence … is where they beat other people up, and they shouldn’t have guns.”
“The way I look at it is he’s just playing politics. That’s all he’s doing. He’s pretending there’s a bigger issue than there really is,” Frank added. “Because even the right-wing Supreme Court that we have right now recognizes that there are some limitations to gun ownership and gun possession. The Second Amendment is not infinite in (the) rights to bear arms.”
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.
