<\/p>\n
PHOENIX \u2014 Arizona\u2019s most populous county on Wednesday joined a growing national movement in which areas are declaring themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries and proclaiming support for gun ownership rights.<\/p>\n
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted in Phoenix to declare the county a \u201cSecond Amendment Preservation County,\u201d following dozens of counties nationwide and four others in Arizona that have approved similar symbolic resolutions meant to stave off gun-control policies that could be seen as unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
The resolution in Maricopa County, which has about 4.4 million residents, simply says the board supports the right to own guns. The proposal lost some of its edge when the board dropped a stipulation that government funds would not be used to infringe on gun rights.<\/p>\n
Supervisor Steve Gallardo, a Democrat, denounced the politically charged resolution. \u201cLet\u2019s think about this. A resolution should not be divisive,\u201d he said. \u201cIt should not be partisan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chairman Clint Hickman countered that multiple constituents had expressed support for the sanctuary designation that was first used in 2018 in Illinois and quickly spread to California, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, Virginia and other states.<\/p>\n
\u201cSanctuary city\u201d is a term more often associated with cities trying to restrict cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities. Some Second Amendment sanctuary supporters say their decision to use the term was a deliberate knock on Democrats who support immigrant sanctuary cities.<\/p>\n
In Arizona, gun owners are already free to carry a concealed firearm without a permit. They can also bypass background checks if they buy their firearms at a gun show. However, federal background checks are required for other purchases.<\/p>\n
Minority Democrats in the Arizona Legislature regularly introduce measures to boost gun regulations, including bans on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons, but the bills are routinely defeated.<\/p>\n
Gary Larson, a gun owner from Glendale, said he had never spoken at a public forum but felt compelled to comment Wednesday because he fears restrictions that could \u201cclamp down\u201d on his freedoms.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtect the rights of gun owners but critique the people who are asking to own guns,\u201d Larson said.<\/p>\n
Gun-control activists, including members of Moms Demand Action, slammed the resolution as a \u201cblack eye\u201d for the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels a little bit like fear-mongering,\u201d Marie Thearle, a member of the group said during the public comment period.<\/p>\n
Garrick McFadden, a former Democratic congressional candidate who is black, said the resolution doesn\u2019t help communities of color.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s 30 handgun deaths in America each day. But 15 of those people are black people that are killed,\u201d McFadden said. \u201cOne of the things that needs to be done is reaching out to your constituents, not just the ones that came up to you and said they fear their rights are being infringed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Bob Christie contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" in Phoenix proclaims support for gun rights<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-75035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75035"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=75035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}