The sheriff of Humbolt County, Nevada, is facing recall over his plans to implement the state’s red flag law.
The Nevada Independent reports that Sheriff Mike Allen says he opposes the law personally, yet will enforce it once it takes effect in 2020.
Allen was asked if he will send SWAT to homes to take away guns, and he responded in a way that convinced county residents he will come while they are not home. Allen said, “We do whatever we do to make it as safe as possible. And if what’s as safe as possible is to wait for that individual to leave the house, then that’s what we’ll do. Most of the time there will be other laws that we’ll be able to apply.”
Dawn Principe, the owner of Sage Hill Arms in Winnemucca, is leading Humboldt County 2nd Amendment Grassroots in an effort to recall Allen.
Allen’s plan to enforce the state’s red flag law comes less than a month after the Humboldt County Commissioners adopted “Second Amendment Sanctuary” status. The sanctuary declaration says, in part, “Neither the United States Congress nor the Nevada legislature should entertain consideration of any legislation that would infringe on constitutionally protected rights under the Second Amendment.”
Sheriff Allen spoke with Breitbart News, saying, “Where in the U.S. Constitution, or the Nevada constitution, can I pick and choose what laws I enforce?”
When asked about the Second Amendment Sanctuary declaration in particular, Allen said, “There’s no legal basis for the sanctuary declaration, for a sanctuary basis.”
Allen added, “I’ve never violated anybody’s constitutional rights, nor will I.”
He said, “I stand by the Second Amendment and everybody’s constitutional rights.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
#1: Vicomte13 To: Deckard (#0)
The power of discretion is inherent in all executive officers. The police and prosecutors are both recognized by all of the courts to have, inherent to their office, the discretion to decide upon their actions.
Prosecutors do not prosecute every crime - they make a judgment as to whether they think they can win, and whether it will "serve justice" to expend the state's limited resources on prosecuting any particular case.
Similarly, the police have discretion to write tickets or issue warnings, or to disregard speeders up to some certain non-fixed threshold (generally, they won't bother with a traffic stop on an open highway for 10 mph over the limit or less, and they'll up that if its cold and rainy and they don't want to get out of the car.
The sheriff's assertion that there's nothing "in the Constitution" that lets him "pick and choose" the laws he enforces is wrong. The courts have clearly said that the Constitution gives him executive discretion. Now, granted, if citizens present red flag complaints and he systematically ignores them, and there is an incident, he could be held accountable. Discretion is not unlimited. But he CAN make a judgment call.
Whether he SHOULD or not is an interesting question.
He could CHOOSE to make the judgment call that the Red Flag statute is unconstitutional, exercise his discretion to not enforce it, and probably not have an issue unless an activist raises the issue. Then he can litigate the unconstitutionality.
But that would take exposing his career and retirement to possible devastating consequences if the courts rule against him.
Vicomte13 posted on 2019-10-29 15:14:11 Reply Private Reply