Manatee County Passes Gun Sanctuary Resolution

BRADENTON – At Tuesday’s meeting, Manatee County Commissioners voted 6-1 in favor of a resolution declaring Manatee County as a "Second Amendment Sanctuary.“ While largely symbolic, an element of the resolution that refers to the county declaring it would "legally defend“ against laws it felt diminished the second amendment rights of its citizens was heavily debated by two commissioners.

The item was brought to the board by Commissioner Jason Bearden, who was elected in November and had campaigned on the issue. Considering the board’s all-Republican composition and the issue’s lightning rod status among conservatives, there was little doubt going in that it would pass, if only so that no commissioner would run the risk of being attacked as "anti-second amendment“ in a future primary.

However, Commissioner George Kruse took issue with one of the six declarations in the resolution, which reads, "Manatee County will take no action whatsoever to jeopardize, diminish, or impair our residents' Second Amendment rights and will legally defend against laws seeking in any way to jeopardize, diminish, or impair such rights.“

Kruse said that he had a real problem with the idea that any four-member majority of this or future boards would be able to vote to take action against the federal government at the taxpayers’ expense. Kruse added that while researching the issue he had found over 50 such resolutions nationwide and that only Polk County, Florida’s–the one on which Manatee’s resolution was modeled–included such language. Kruse said that even pro-gun groups that offered templates for such resolutions did not include such an element.

Bearden, who has rarely gotten through a meeting of the board without declaring his steadfast commitment to protecting the U.S. Constitution since being elected, indicated that he had no problem with such a commitment.

"I mean, essentially, you raised your right hand to protect the constitution," said Bearden. "That being said, and I’m gonna say this time and time again, you have the obligation to protect the constitution. This statement right here says that. Now, that being said, if the government so happened to say, hey, we’re gonna shut down all businesses, are you gonna be in favor of shutting down all businesses? Probably not, right? So, what is the difference between that and this? Now, I can see if maybe you were I don’t know, into the things that government is telling us we need to do, right? But I’m not. I’m not. So, what I mean by that is that if you’re not willing to shut down businesses then you should be in favor of this statement as well because you have the obligation to defend the constitution. You said the oath."

Kruse said that he did not have the obligation to use taxpayer funds to sue the federal government based on his opinion. Bearden then seemed to accuse Kruse of not being willing to uphold the constitution.

"I think you seriously misunderstand the role of a county commissioner when it comes to the constitution," Kruse told Bearden while saying that he suspected that the commissioner would turn any dissenting opinion on any element of the resolution into a political referendum on whether that commissioner "supported the second amendment."

The resolution passed 6-1 with Kruse dissenting. Click here to read it in full.