LAURINBURG — After the month-long mulling over a request for Scotland County to become a Second Amendment Sanctuary, Sheriff Ralph Kersey addressed the intent and what transpired on Monday when county commissioners approved an alternative resolution.
In January, Kersey addressed the Scotland County Board of Commissioners and expressed his desire for Scotland County to become a sanctuary county.
“The resolution was nothing new to the state of North Carolina — yes, there are resolutions that differ somewhat and I looked at that,” said Kersey in reference to the original resolution he presented to the board. “As I looked at other sheriff’s resolutions, not that any of them were wrong but this one was one that as sheriff I felt spoke what it needed to speak.”
The resolution was meant to be a proclamation for the board to sign in support of the Second Amendment and to protect law-abiding citizens from having their firearms taken away.
“A resolution is nothing really but a proclamation — it’s not an ordinance it’s not a law, it’s just a proclamation that I proposed to the county commissioners to sign just making the statement that. as a majority in Scotland County. we support the Second Amendment for law-abiding citizens,” said Kersey.
For more than an hour Monday, the board listened to residents address them in reference to the proposed resolution.
At the end of the public forum, the County Attorney Ed Johnson addressed the board with his concerns for Kersey’s resolution.
“I made it clear in the first meeting that if they were not comfortable with the word ‘sanctuary’ we could work around it, I even gave them a second option,” said Kersey, “But there was no reason to hesitate on the word because we made it clear on what type of sanctuary it was going to be.
“Now Mr. Johnson, who I respect highly, stated that he felt like the state or federal government would assume we were a sanctuary for illegal immigrants,” he added.
“There was nothing in that resolution that stated anything about illegal immigrants,” continued Kersey. “It stated Second Amendment Sanctuary and that’s exactly what it was. I think sometimes we take a mole hill and make a mountain out of it and that’s exactly what we did at that county commissioner’s meeting.”
After addressing his concerns, Johnson presented the board with a revised version of Kersey’s original resolution.
“I’m OK with them tabling it after the February meeting and looking at it and I’m OK with changes,” said Kersey, “but I would have felt like, since I submitted the resolution that, as a board, they would have met with me. To me that was disrespectful since I submitted the first resolution.”
This all stemmed from reports in other states where state level government was reportedly trying to implement the seizure of certain firearms.
“We said at one time that the Bible in that part of the century would never be removed from school — well guess what, it happened,” said Kersey. “Well this is a — firearms are never going to be removed from the homes of law-abiding citizens — — but we are headed in that direction.”
Kersey expressed adamantly that he will still uphold the Second Amendment no matter the outcome.
“I told them in that first meeting, If the Second Amendment is ever changed, it’s going to fall on me and regardless if they removed it or not, I’m not going to a law abiding citizen’s home and take their fire arm, said Kersey. “I’m just not gonna do it.”
“Do I ever see it coming to that, hopefully not,” continued Kersey. “Do I see them putting restrictions on certain weapons, yes, but we are never going to remove them all from the streets. Just like we are never going to remove all drunk drivers, just like we are never going to get all the drugs off them, just like we are always going to have people with mental issues.
“But the Sheriff’s Office will continue to support the Second Amendment as long as the people of Scotland County continue to want me in this seat,” said Kersey.
JJ Melton can be reached at jmelton@laurinburg.com.
