Commissioners consider becoming sanctuary county

New county manager Ron Alexander attended his first commission meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 28 as the board decided to move forward with making Pike a Second Amendment Sanctuary County. During his commissioner report, Jason Proctor asked what needed to be done to make Pike a Second Amendment Sanctuary County and commissioners unanimously voted to allow the county attorney to research the issue and bring a resolution before the board at a future meeting for them to vote on. ’I think it is important to take action to protect the citizens’ right to bear arms,’ commissioner Proctor told the Journal Reporter. ‘My hope is that this resolution will ensure that our next generation’s constitutional rights are upheld in this county.’Lamar and Butts counties are working toward becoming Sanctuary Counties and Habersham and Stephens County have already passed the resolution. The resolutions passed by those counties include declarations that the board of commissioners ‘affirms its support for the Pike County Sheriff in the exercise of his sound discretion to not enforce against any citizen an unconstitutional firearms law’ and that ‘no agent, employee or official of Pike County shall provide material support or participate in any way with the implementation of federal acts, orders, rules, laws or regulations in violation of the Second Amendment to the United States of the Constitution. Pike commissioners have not yet been presented with the Firearm Sanctuary County resolution so it may vary from the others that have already been approved in two Georgia counties. Georgia Constitutional Provision Article I, Section I, Paragraph VIII states, ‘The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, but the General Assembly shall have power to prescribe the manner in which arms may be borne.’