Dubois County Sheriff shows support for gun rights sanctuary
Sheriff Tom Kleinhelter was one of three people who requested the Dubois County Commissioners reconsider a resolution to join the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement.
A wave of counties and states have approved resolutions showing unadulterated support for the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States at the request of citizen groups who have formed in response to potential gun control measures being enacted by federal and state governments. These 2A sanctuaries have adopted laws and resolutions that oppose, prohibit, or impede the enforcement of certain gun control measures.
During Monday’s commissioner meeting, Kleinhelter spoke after residents Eric Jochim and Tim Keusch both expressed their dismay with the commissioner’s decision to not adopt a resolution last month.
The sheriff told the commissioners he supported the movement and felt the message of support for the Second Amendment from the county to the state and the federal government was important. “I support the Second Amendment. I support this resolution,” Kleinhelter said. “If my name was on there to sign it, I would be honored to sign that resolution stating as your sheriff, that I support the Second Amendment.”
Keusch pointed out that at the previous meeting, an argument against the resolution was that commissioners swore an oath to uphold the Constitution when they took office.
“I would like to say that the President of the United States and every member of Congress took that oath also. And, once again, I don’t believe that we’re following it,” Keusch said. “So, we’re simply asking the county council to assure all of its residents that they, you know, nor any of their employees will help assist the federal government in anything unconstitutional, including firearm seizures or magazine bans and such.”
Keusch added that he was concerned that the recent executive action taken by President Biden regarding pistol modifications in response to the Boulder, Colorado and Atlanta shootings would lead to more actions that could eventually affect him. Here is a statement from the White House on those actions.
“When the President of the United States can sign an executive order overnight that would make me a felon just because I have legally bought an AR-15, that scares the hell out of me,” Keusch said.
No movement was taken on a resolution during the meeting but Blessinger acknowledged a copy of a resolution passed by Kosciusko County in which they affirmed supporting the entire Constitution. “One of my comments was, well, do we need to have an ordinance for a First Amendment county, or, you know, the Third Amendment, Fourth Amendment and Fifth Amendment,” he said referring to the initial meeting in which Jochim approached the commissioners about a resolution. “Where does it stop because we support all of these amendments.”
Here are the previous stories on this issue.