Officials reject second request for county to be 2nd Amendment Sanctuary

A group seeking to have Columbus and Bartholomew County government declare the county a Second Amendment Sanctuary failed on a second try Monday.

City and county officials wrote a clearly worded statement in January saying neither the county nor the city would consider any Second Amendment Sanctuary resolution.

“The proposal appears to be an attempt to usurp or supersede the authority of the courts,” according to the statement last month from the Bartholomew County commissioners and Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop in January. “We are not in favor of doing anything,” commissioners chairman Carl Lienhoop said.

A group calling itself Bartholomew County Indiana 2A United Sanctuary had asked the two unit of local government to “refuse to cooperate with state and federal firearm laws” perceived to violate the Second Amendment, including any future proposed restrictions on clip capacity, silencers, bump stocks, bayonet mounts, among other items, group spokesman Chris Imel said.

On Monday, a very similar proposal was sent to both governmental entities from a group calling itself “The 2A Project.”

While this new proposal was not attributed to Imel’s group, Imel said he wrote most of the accompanying emails that were sent to city and county officials.

While most of the language referred to constitutional rights, Item #3 of the proposed resolution asked the county commissioners and Sheriff Matt Myers to “declare their intent to withhold any expenditure or use of county resources to enforce any law or regulation based upon a good faith believe that such law or regulation is unconstitutional.”

Although Imel said the January resolution likely contained language (local leaders) objected to, the new draft tried to meet city and county leaders in the middle,” Imel said.

However, portion’s of Imel’s wording did not sit well with Commissioner Rick Flohr as he read it.

“Your lack of caring about the Second Amendment was evident by the way none of you responded to the original request a few weeks ago,” Imel wrote in the email that was read aloud by Flohr. “Hiding behind a generic joint statement is not going to work forever. That was a slap in the face to gun owners of Bartholomew County. The people of Bartholomew County want leadership that stands by our Constitution.  Please show them your leadership.”

Flohr and the remaining two commissioners emphasized they all own guns, and strongly voiced their support for Second Amendment gun rights. Flohr and Kleinhenz also said there are certain values they share with Imel’s group, adding the organization serves an important role as a public watchdog.

“But to say we’re going to be ‘for’ or ‘against’ something that’s out there in the future  – and we don’t know what it is – I don’t see how they can ask us to do that,” Flohr said.

For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.