County Officials Nullify Anti-gun Illinois Supreme Court Ruling
Bill Hahn
Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

When a state’s supreme court rules against the Second Amendment, depriving citizens of their God-given right to self-defense and self-preservation in the face of government tyranny, what does one do? We’ll give you a real-life example from the state of Illinois from county officials who know how to constitutionally handle verdicts that the state’s supreme court gets wrong.

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Last week, the Illinois State Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to uphold the state’s newly enacted ban on many semi-automatic guns. According to The Times, “The law bans dozens of specific brands or types of rifles and handguns, .50-caliber guns, attachments and rapid-firing devices. No rifle is allowed to accommodate more than 10 rounds, with a 15-round limit for handguns. The most popular gun targeted is the AR-15 rifle.”

As The Times points out, “Current owners of such weapons won’t be required to surrender them. However, gun owners will have to register them with the Illinois State Police — including serial numbers, a provision initially removed by the Senate but restored after House proponents’ objections.”

Illinois is one of the unfriendliest states toward law-abiding gun owners, preferring to instead foster a justice system that coddles criminals and punishes victims, with much of the crime and ruling party politics coming out of the urban areas.

The rural areas of Illinois can be at odds with the big city politics that emanates out of Chicago and signed into law in Springfield. This was quite noticeable last year when Governor Pritzker signed gun control legislation after the July 4 Hyde Park shooting. Shortly after passing the law, according to ABC News, some 74 “sheriff’s departments have publicly vowed to defy elements” of the law.

Specifically, they reported, “The offices have vowed to not check if weapons are registered with the state or house individuals arrested only for not complying with the law.”

Sheriffs are locally elected officials at the county level. So 74 departments equal 74 counties, which is nearly 73 percent of the 102 counties in Illinois.

One of these counties is La Salle County. Sheriff Adam Diss said in January to The Times, “The right to keep and bear arms for the defense of life, liberty and property is regarded as an inalienable right by the people.”

Around the same time, the La Salle County Board voted unanimously to adopt a resolution opposing the new law, and the county’s state attorney also put out a statement that he would not prosecute anyone based on the new law. As The Times reported, “Joe Navarro said he thinks the law is unconstitutional and that he will act accordingly.”

It may come as no surprise to you that Sheriff Diss is a Republican. However, Mr. Navarro is a Democrat, demonstrating that party labels should mean nothing when it comes to obeying the Constitution.

As we wrote in our Article VI Constitutional Principles booklet, “America’s Founders said constitutional violations should be met with constitutional enforcement. Local, state, and federal officials have a duty to protect our rights by opposing constitutional violations.”

The Second Amendment is a popular right that government loves to usurp. After all, take away the arms of the people and they are left defenseless against government-sanctioned tyranny. History proves time and time again that dictators and their regimes want a monopoly on anything that takes away control of the people. Gun registration is always a precursor to confiscation. So when laws challenge the basic rights of the individual, elected officials have a duty to protect their constituents by declaring the usurpation or attack on the right as null and void.

For those that understand this constitutional principle, it is a powerful tool. James Madison wrote in 1834, “Thus the right of nullification meant by Mr. Jefferson is the natural right, which all admit to be a remedy against insupportable oppression.”

Nullification has been used on many occasions throughout American history, most recently and notably during the unconstitutional government lockdowns of Covid-19.

Yet, there are still many legislators and special-interest groups that argue against using nullification. They say it doesn’t work and that it’s unconstitutional. However, these are merely excuses of those that either do not want to act or perhaps they don’t understand the concept.

For gun control to be lasting, the Constitution will need to be amended. For as long as the Second Amendment is around, gun-grabbers will have a hard time getting past it. The Founding Fathers made it hard to amend the Constitution to help avoid the political whims of the day. Article V of the Constitution offers two ways to amend. One in which Congress proposes the amendment, which then gets sent to the states for ratification once two-thirds of both houses of Congress agree to the amendment. Three-fourths of the states are needed to ratify.

Another way to amend is for two-thirds of the states to apply to Congress for a convention for proposing amendments. Congress than calls a convention. Regarding further logistics, the Constitution is silent, but historical precedence was set when a Constitutional Convention was called in 1787 to amend the Articles of Confederation, which were entirely scrapped, and the new Constitution was written and ratified following a lower threshold for ratification. Under the Articles, ratification needed to come from all states, but under the new Constitution, it was lowered to three-fourths.

As the late Justice Antonin Scalia once said, “I certainly would not want a Constitutional Convention. Whoa! Who knows what would come out of it!”

Well, California Governor Gavin Newsom knows what can come out of that, and has launched a campaign to change the Second Amendment by calling a convention. He said California would be the first to get this started. And true to his word, SJR7 has just been introduced.

This resolution applies to Congress for a convention to rewrite the Second Amendment, adding verbiage that would allow local, state, and federal governments to legislate away an individual’s right to bear arms — something the Constitution now says shall not be infringed. While it’s a long shot, we shudder to think what would happen at any convention that Congress calls, whether it’s by activists pushing it on the Left or the Right.

As long as the Constitution stands with its Bill of Rights, nullification will always have a solid foundation from which to operate, preserving your God-given rights. But if we lose the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, the very foundation of this Republic will be lost and reshaped into something that will be unrecognizable, but will fit right into the globalist New World Order that has been planned and promoted by its supporters since at least the 18th century.

Going back to our Illinois example, States Attorney Navarro said that he was told the ruling would be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and has a good chance of being heard by the court next year. Oh, and those sheriffs who have so bravely stood up, now number over 90.

Let this be a nullification lesson to all those in states that frequently get it wrong. All you need are some key local elected officials that understand and will implement nullification.

The John Birch Society has been working since 1958 to protect the very foundation from those that want to erase it and make it over. Our primary strategy is education, while the truth is our only weapon. We utilize the constitutional tools given to American citizens by the Founders to protect their God-given rights, including the powerful tool of nullification.

But if we are to win, we will need your help. As the Founding Fathers demonstrated, it does not take a majority to win. Rather it’s the irate, tireless minority that gets the job done.

Learn more about nullification and then put it to work in your area. Download our free booklet or purchase physical copies to distribute, along with other related literature that helps to explain the importance of this constitutional tool.

Join The John Birch Society to begin working with others in your area. For you can change the trajectory of history.

I’m Bill Hahn for The John Birch Society, and until next time, learn more and take action to help preserve our precious Republic!