Guns and their owners need no ‘sanctuary’ | Editorial

Gun rights advocates boast that more than two dozen New Jersey municipalities and at least three counties have declared themselves a “sanctuary” from supposedly unconstitutional firearms regulations. In Pennsylvania and other states, similar efforts led by organizations such as “2A Sanctuary,” a reference to the Second Amendment, are underway, with some advocates urging local jurisdictions not to enforce so-called red flag or other recently enacted laws. This self-styled nationwide grassroots movement gained traction in 2019, supposedly without any direct support from the National Rifle Association.

The “sanctuary” measures some local governments seem all too eager to adopt are often described as nonbinding or symbolic, but outrageous is a better word. So is “dangerous.” The use of the term “sanctuary” is a gratuitous slap at efforts to protect the rights of undocumented immigrants. Firearms “sanctuary” declarations embody a willful misunderstanding of the Second Amendment; advocates are overreacting to the passage of commonsense gun regulations. And the emergence of a campaign that paints firearms owners as victims, if not martyrs, while thousands of actual victims of America’s lethal gun violence plague can no longer speak — much less, lobby their local township council — verges on cruel.

When West Milford Township in Passaic County pioneered the effort in the Garden State last December, it declared itself “gun-friendly” — as if that were a promotional slogan. Cape May County passed its sanctuary resolution two weeks ahead of the Jan. 28 visit of President Donald Trump, who has entertained the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre at the White House. The NRA has long been implacably opposed to even the most modest gun regulations.

New Jersey sanctuary advocates seem particularly up in arms about the state’s September enactment of one of a number of gun regulations signed by Gov. Phil Murphy. This “red flag” measure enables law enforcement to keep firearms away from a person whom a state Superior Court judge has determined poses a danger to themselves or others. State officials said Thursday that 198 temporary orders and 100 final orders had been granted as of Feb. 4 under the state’s Extreme Risk Protective Order Act. How many firearms actually have been confiscated temporarily or permanently as a result of those orders is unclear, but it’s safe to assume that virtually all of the estimated one million owners of legal guns in New Jersey still have their weapons.

Nonetheless, lamentations about the threat of “confiscation” of all civilian firearms by a government supposedly bent on leaving families defenseless help fuel local sanctuary campaigns.

This sanctuary movement urges municipalities to “opt out” of laws governing guns. Maybe Philadelphia, which has long argued for the ability to make its own gun laws, could turn this movement on its head and “opt out” of state laws that restrict the city from making its own laws.

Not everyone who is against regulating firearms supports sanctuaries. In January, the PA Post quoted Kim Stolfer, president of the Pennsylvania organization Firearms Owners Against Crime, calling such efforts “misguided.” Stolfer is right. The sanctuary campaign is not only misguided. It’s an empty exercise exploiting the time and fears of ordinary Americans. Little if any good can come of it.