The Second Amendment sanctuary city movement continues.
The city of Needles, California has become one of the most recent local governments to proclaim itself a Second Amendment sanctuary city. The gun sanctuary movement began in Illinois a couple of years ago and has spread like wildfire. Now the Los Angeles Times has profiled the man behind this latest California city that’s said “enough is enough” when it comes to they state’s crazy gun laws.
The big city folks from L.A. can’t really fathom why anyone wouldn’t revel in California’s strict gun control laws. No matter that The Golden State’s gun regulations do nothing to slow criminals or mass killers (see Gilroy).
So the LA Times sent a reporter out to the hinterlands to profile Tim Terral, the man behind the Needles city ordinance. But, confounding their expectations and attempts to marginalize gun owners, the Times’ reporter didn’t find a redneck hillbilly missing half his teeth holding a jug of moonshine.
Instead, the reporter found an intelligent, thoughtful man. The Times piece opens with this:
Needles, Calif. — The blistering sun hung high above the barren landscape, 118 degrees of scatter-the-critters hot, as Tim Terral loaded a magazine into his 9-millimeter pistol.
He narrowed his eyes, fixing his gaze on a target before a succession of pops cut through the silence. Bull’s-eye.
Satisfied, Terral wiped a bead of sweat off his brow and cocked his head to the side, a coy smile spreading across his slender face.
“I don’t miss much,” he crowed.
Today, his attention was focused on a small shooting target. But Terral has his eye on a larger one: California’s tough gun control laws.
Last month, other city leaders followed the Needles councilman’s suggestion and declared this town along the Colorado River a “sanctuary city” for the 2nd Amendment.
Oh noes! A “sanctuary city” for guns and ammo? Clutch those worry beads!
The collision of liberal and conservative buzzwords was meant to be a poke in the eye to the Golden State — the heart of the liberal “resistance” against a president voters in Needles overwhelmingly supported in 2016. And likely will again in 2020. This conservative small town is part of California, but also quite apart from it. Those big-city politicians making laws in Sacramento, many people here are convinced, don’t give one damn about a place like Needles.
In the coming months, city officials hope to somehow cajole the state to allow Needles and possibly other border towns to be exempt from rules on purchasing ammunition, which would allow people here to buy ammo from out of state, and honor concealed carry permits for people who have obtained them outside California.
“For so long we’ve had to deal with the laws as they are,” said Mayor Jeff Williams. “It was time to stand up and say, ‘Enough.’”
If local police refuse to enforce the unconstitutional edicts from Sacramento, they won’t need the California legislature to allow them to opt out of gun control laws. The same goes for local prosecutors.
Needles and other small towns in rural California aren’t just in this for the liberty, but for economic reasons as well.
Across the Colorado River in Arizona, towns are friendlier to businesses, and boast lower taxes and looser regulations on many consumer items, including firearms, Needles officials argue. This puts the California town at a severe economic disadvantage, Williams said.
Funny how less regulation and lower taxes tends to facilitate vigorous economic activity. As for legally buying guns and ammo within the state of California, Needles residents have to drive a long way for any of that.
Another contention is that it’s illegal for Californians to purchase ammunition in other states. The closest in-state gun shops to Needles are 100 miles to the south in Blythe or more than 140 miles away in Barstow.
“It’s just ludicrous to have to go that far to buy a bullet,” Williams said.
Read the LA Times story for the rest of the story. To his credit, the reporter does a decent job of covering the story fairly.
Frankly, just the fact that a mainstream media publication like the LA Times covered the story shows how times have changed. Even the mainstream media can’t ignore the successes of the Second Amendment sanctuary city movement. Even if many of the sanctuaries are more symbolic than substantive. So far.