RasRadioLive

The National Sheriffs Association (NSA) and its President are calling for sheriffs to commit treason to the Constitution! It’s outrageous!

The NSA issued a press release on 2/1/13,   “NSA Position Statement on Gun Control.” The shocking document is not so much about gun control as the NSA’s philosophy on the duties of a sheriff.

It is a finely crafted “political statement” in which they say all the right things people want to hear about the Second Amendment. But, it also includes certain philosophies that the average citizen will gloss over but that are even more important than its statement on gun control. In fact, the philosophies neutralize their statements in support of the Second Amendment.

According to the NSA, sheriffs are to enforce whatever laws are passed by Congress and leave it up to the federal courts to decide if such laws are Constitutional. It’s an abuse now, apologize later policy.

It also shows a lack of understanding of how our government works. The lower federal courts have no authority over the states and a state has concurrent power to interpret the Constitution and federal law.

It is in absolute contradiction of the sheriffs’ duties under Article VI clauses 2 and 3. This Article establishes that not every federal law is supreme but that only federal laws passed “in Pursuance” of the Constitution are the “supreme Law of the Land”.  The last clause of Article VI requires sheriffs to take an oath to protect the Constitution.

Together these clauses require all state and federal, legislative, judicial, and executive officers (including sheriffs) to have a working knowledge of the Constitution. It also establishes an active, affirmative, and personal duty on their part to protect the Constitution. One cannot protect the Constitution if they do not know what it says and means. Nor can they protect the Constitution by enforcing laws contrary to it or sitting on the sideline while others do so. Again the duty is active and affirmative.

This is exactly the position taken by the NSA. It says “…sheriffs do not possess the legal authority to interpret the constitutionality of any law…”

Yes they must blindly enforce any law that comes down the pike according to the NSA, like a bunch of robotic cops or well-trained apes. These are the kind of guys that would warm the hearts of any segregationist or slave owner trying to get the return of a slave from a “free state.” In fact this was the defense used at the Nuremberg trails following WWII, “I was only following orders.” It did not work there and we should not accept it here.

This type of an attitude works great for those who want a Gestapo or a KGB, but it ill serves a free Constitutional Republic.

In 1821 Chief Justice Marshal said that to accept authority one did not have under the constitution or to refuse authority one did have was “treason to the Constitution”.  Cohen v. Virginia.

It’s not just our kids that have been dummied-down. Thank God for the efforts of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Police Officers Association and Sheriff Richard Mack for their efforts to re-educate our country’s law enforcement officers on their constitutional duties. The Oath Keepers are doing the same for our military.

NSA goes on to say “…sheriffs strongly support our citizens’ protected right to bear arms under the Second Amendment…”  They then compound this erroneous statement by saying “…the National Sheriffs’ Association supports the rights conferred by the Second Amendment …”

The Second Amendment does not give citizens a right to “keep and bear arms”. None of the Bill of Rights “confers” any right what-so-ever!

The Second Amendment simply tells the feds they “shall not infringe” such pre-constitutional God given inalienable right. There is quite a difference in the two. It amazes me that profession law enforcement officers who are under oath to the Constitution do not have even a fundamental grasp of what it means.

A major message by the Framers was that it was dangerous to our Liberty to have a mass of folks running around who were armed and either did not support our Constitution and its foundational principles  (hence the Article VI oath) or who did not know them (like foreign troops.)

Think about this. Under the NSA philosophy if the federal government gives the order to take away our guns, either through a Feinstein bill or an Obama Executive Order, the members of the NSA see it as their duty to enforce (and help?) such a law until such time as a federal court tells them they may not do so. Including appeals that could take years.

The NSA does not recognize a duty to only enforce constitutional laws or apparently to even know the Constitution.  We should call these people “Supremacy Freaks”.

I suppose if there is a disaster in your area and the military move in and direct the NSA member sheriffs to collect citizens’ guns they will feel compelled to oblige, such as happen in New Orleans, Louisiana and Greenburg, Kansas.

Kind of makes you feel warm and fuzzy doesn’t it?

For the sake of Liberty,

Richard D. Fry

November Patriots

General Counsel, Patriot Coalition

Notes

1. Todd C. Frankel, Gun control debate reveals rift among nation’s sheriffs,  St. Louis Post – Dispatch   (2/4/13)  http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/gun-control-debate-reveals-rift-among-nation-s-sheriffs/article_8a68c343-88d0-52b0-87d6-380486b5835f.html

2.       http://www.sheriffs.org/  NSA Position Statement on Gun Control