07.21.2021
Today the Columbia County Court held a hearing on the county’s effort to invalidate their own Second Amendment Sanctuary Ordinance.
A little background.
Twice in the last three years the people of Columbia County have passed ballot measures protecting the Second Amendment.
The first was the Second Amendment Preservation Ordinance which was followed by the Second Amendment Sanctuary Ordinance.
Recently the Columbia County Commission sought to overturn the will of the people by revoking the ordinances as passed by the people and replacing them with their own version, which they then sought to have the courts invalidate.
Yes, they passed a law they then asked the courts to declare unconstitutional. But they were not alone, they colluded with Bloomberg’s “Everytown For Gun Safety” which provided the big bucks lawyers who they hoped would provide the legal muscle to overturn the will of the people.
Joining in the fun was Oregon’s own militantly anti-gun attorney general.
OFF, along with Gun Owners of America, intervened in the case and today was the “remote” hearing.
As they had done in their briefs, Everytown and the County Commission repeatedly attempted to misrepresent what the ballot measures did. The ballot measures did NOT invalidate or nullify any laws. All they did was require that attacks on the Second Amendment rights by forces outside the county be enforced by the people who created the attack, meaning the state or the feds, and the County Sheriff would not do their dirty work for them.
The ordinances did not even apply to the employees of cities in the county. Only county employees.
But Everytown, the Commission, and the AG’s office tried over and over to suggest they did.
Interestingly they often attacked the ballot measure ordinances which the county declared void when they passed their own version. But technically those were not even the subject of the case at hand. Only the County Commissioner’s version was really being litigated.
The County has repeatedly asserted that they were really trying to uphold the will of the people in spite of the fact that it was the County which asked the court to challenge the ordinance and repeatedly provided arguments for its invalidation.
We believe our legal team did an outstanding job of demolishing the other side’s arguments. We expect a decision from the judge on July 29th.
We want to extend a very sincere thank you for everyone who has contributed to this fight. Legal battles are expensive.
We cannot predict the outcome of this case, and as with all legal battles any ruling can be appealed. But we’ll keep you informed.
Once again, we are up against billionaires, so we are extremely grateful for your support.