Posted on 03/15/2013 11:59:49 AM PDT by Red Steel
El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa told an angry crowd Thursday he would stand firm against Democrat-sponsored gun bills that will almost certainly become law July 1.
Maketa, who received several standing ovations during a two-hour public meeting about gun legislation, said the proposed laws were hastily crafted and at least one would be unenforceable.
“One of the reasons a vast, vast majority of sheriffs around this state are opposing these bills and all aspects of these bills is because they are concerned that this is a stepping stone to registration” of gun owners, he said.
“We will not tolerate that kind of intrusion on our personal property rights,” he said, generating loud applause from the standing-room-only crowd of more than 300.
Maketa urged the group to mobilize before the next election, and to support a proposed recall of Senate President John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, over Morse’s support of gun control legislation. Maketa and Morse have traded barbs over whether opposition from County Sheriffs of Colorado to gun bills was linked to lack of support for a pay increase for sheriffs.
At one point during Thursday’s meeting, held at Centennial Hall downtown, Maketa imitated Morse, drawing laughter from the audience. When Maketa first mentioned Morse, the crowd started to boo, and Maketa raised his arms and encouraged more booing.
Maketa said he’s working with attorneys to see what can be done to overturn the bills if they become law.
“I’ve been talking to people about bringing litigation against the state of Colorado,” he said.
Maketa said he would have to enforce bills signed into law to prevent exposing the county and taxpayers to liability. However, he said he would willfully ignore the ban on high-capacity magazines.
“I don’t know when you bought them. Do you see what I’m saying?” he said. “I can’t tell you when those were sold, bought and purchased. As far as I’m concerned, they were all pre-July 1 if the governor does sign this bill.”
That bill fails to recognize that there are “hundreds of thousands of those magazines floating around,” he said.
“It’s sold to the state and the citizens as a big lie and will not save lives,” he said.
The audience peppered Maketa with questions, including whether he would run for a seat on the state Legislature or for governor.
“I don’t have any plan to run for governor, for senate, for house,” he said. “I say that knowing full well things can change.”
Another audience member asked whether the sheriff’s office maintained a database of gun owners. Maketa said his office keeps records of every concealed carry permit holder in the county but that he would never share it.
“I was asked this question: ‘What if the state passed a law that required you had to turn over all of your database information to the state?’ I’ll tell you what my answer would be: ‘What database? I no longer have one,’” he said.
The meeting was sponsored by county Commissioner Peggy Littleton, who kicked it off by reading a resolution adopted by the Board of County Commissioners in January.
The resolution states, among other things, that the county will not “enforce any statutes, edicts, Presidential Directives, or other regulations and proclamations which conflict — and are expressly preempted by — the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings” on Second Amendment questions.
When asked if his office would intervene if “government agents” started arresting county residents for exercising their Second Amendment rights, Maketa said he would.
“I would step in the way if federal law enforcement was acting under some directive and seizing weapons without a lawfully signed warrant,” he said, adding that he’s not worried about that because he’s received emails of support from federal law enforcement agencies.
“I think they would turn first, quit and join me before following something as ludicrous as that,” he said.
Ping. Maketa is all in.
Some will and some won’t. History shows people like Obama know how to get what they want if you give them the power.
No kidding. None of these bills would be on the books if the people stood up. The most interesting elections are going to be the county sheriffs from here on out: and their position on the Constitution and militia.
true, if people woudl wake up about what the left is doing, whether guns, drugs, homosexuality, etc then none of this would be happening now.
Instead the sheep react of which the left wants as they have already passed the law and then wait for people to get used to it.
As for those conservatives and gun owners up in the north east who still live up there, how can ytou do it.
In 2008 the comment were about gun Bible rednecks about western PA nad they still vote for these two idiots
A storm is certainly brewing, but I will reserve ultimate judgment on this gentleman until this event actually comes to pass. If he does, in fact, spit in the face of the enemy, putting his own job and status in peril, I will laud this man with my loudest voice.
I do, however, hear a tinge of campaigning in all of this. A lot of this hyperbole gets slung around to get people behind a campaign push. While I agree with what he says, I want to see the actions come to pass. Only then will I truly know this man can be called a friend.
About 4 to 5 counties in Colorado that are Dem run will, however, about the other 30 Colorado counties or so that are rural or conservative will not be actively enforcing these dumb Obama/Bloomberg anti-2nd amendment laws.
Sheriff Maketa is the sheriff of the most populous county in the the state, which make his intent to not support them significant.
I lived in El Paso county a while back. I was actually hoping to move back to Colorado until I saw this latest anti-gun nonsense.
Google is your friend:
Cestui Qui Trust
Or go here:
http://www.barefootsworld.net/parensp.html
Voluntary Servitude by Deception:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6b4YrXayzE
I think your are interested in this one. ...
Outstanding! Great public affairs by an exceptional Sheriff and great work in general. Thank you for the heads-up, Red Steel.
In the capital trying to be heard.
BS! The people did stand up. The commies rammed their agenda through anyway.
Sheriff Maketa releases statement regarding gun control stance
Historically, any citizen would be allowed to speak if they arrived at the Capitol early and signed up on testimony records. Although sign up sheets were in place and citizens including myself signed up, we were completely disregarded. Minutes after I signed up to testify, I learned a different process would be utilized and testimony was based on three categories: experts, preferred witnesses, and public witnesses. No explanation was provided to define expert or preferred witness. I was told this decision was made by the senate president and the chairperson of the hearing committee. Additionally, experts would have no time constraints and all others would be restricted to three minutes.
As I made my way out of the Capitol, I was shocked at the number of people who attended these hearings. It's estimated the number of people in attendance reached 1,000. I spoke to several and was told they just wanted their voice to be heard.
I am not sharing this because of the outcome of the hearings that day; rather I am sharing this because of the process implemented and the faces of all those citizens that were never permitted to participate in the process. Government is supposed to be by the people, for the people and on this day, they were crushed and kicked to the side. Special interest coalitions and hand picked experts with no relevant expertise trumped our citizens.
Shocking email: Dems threaten Colo. sheriffs’ salaries over gun control
Sheriff Terry Maketa to file charges against Colorado Democrat leadership
Recall effort begins; Petition aims to oust McLachlan (Anti-Gun Colorado Dem State Rep.)
coloradoaccountability.com Three recall efforts underway for Rep. McLachlan, Sen. Morse and Sen. Hudak.
Poll at the Denver Post on the proposed Magazine Ban.
Vast majority support repeal of mag ban.
Oh, I meant to ping you too TE. I see you found it. ;-)
Not a problem, FRiend. Thanks for thinking of me. These days I check ‘banglist’ before I look at any other articles.
Colorado legislature just passed the “mandatory background check” law.
Sending it to the Guv, who is expected to sign.
Since this bill is meaningless without mandatory gun registration, you can expect significant legal challenges and massive non-compliance.
Hickenlooper is collecting those anti-gun bills. That makes 3 sitting on his desk.
Looper is probably waiting for the others and signed them all at once as long as the gun-grabbing bills are within the 10 day window, or he could let them become law without his signature. We’d be lucky if he vetos any of them
Terry is a pretty sharp politician and I’ve sometimes criticized him, but this is good news.
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