A hunting dog and hunting rifle, similar to the gear many Mercer County hunters use. | Wikimedia
A hunting dog and hunting rifle, similar to the gear many Mercer County hunters use. | Wikimedia
A board member of one small Illinois town has proposed a resolution making the county a sanctuary for gun owners, in much the same way some communities have declared themselves sanctuary cities for immigrants.
Mercer County Board Member Dr. Brian Anseeuw (R-New Windsor) introduced a proposal to make the county a safe haven to protect the rights of resident gun owners, according to a May 3 WQAD-TV 8 article.
“We’re tired of Chicago telling us what to do,” Anseeuw told Rock Island Today. “In doing this, we hope to have other counties follow suit.”
Although he admits the nonbinding resolution can’t supersede state laws that might be passed to ban guns, Anseeuw pointed out that state law can’t trump the U.S. Constitution. However, he fears that silence will lead to an erosion of Second Amendment rights.
“There are politicians locally who would have no problem taking this right away from us,” Anseeuw said. “Unfortunately, if we don’t (fight), we’re going to lose this right, despite what the constitution says.”
As a rural community with an estimated population of 15,618 in 2017, Mercer County contains a large population of gun owners who are hunters, a fact Anseeuw said politicians often overlook in characterizing the gun debate. Much of Chicago’s gun violence, he argues, involves handguns, rather than rifles used for hunting.
“It seems like every time something happens, they always go after the law-abiding citizens,” he said. “If they would enforce the laws already on the books, we probably wouldn’t have any of this problem, but they don’t.”
Anseeuw said using a nonbinding resolution to drive public policy change has worked before. In 2012, he said he introduced a successful ballot measure in Mercer County for concealed carry, an action he said spurred similar moves in other counties and eventually led to a statewide concealed-carry law.
“We’re hoping this sends a message to Chicago via Springfield that we’re not going to take this anymore,” Anseeuw said. “I mean our state is dying; people leave this state like crazy.”
A gun ban would be “just one more thing the state is doing to help destroy our state,” he said.
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