Sangamon County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois


Jim Butler, President, SCRA


Sangamon County and the
 Second Amendment Resolution

  James Butler, President, SCRA
June 2009 GunNews







Henderson and Douglas Counties are the latest counties to pass the Second Amendment Resolution.  This makes 90 counties sending a strong message to legislators in Illinois that these counties, gun owners and supporters have had enough of the anti-gun legislation in Illinois. Only 12 counties out of 102 have failed to pass the Second Amendment Resolution.

Unfortunately, Sangamon County is one of the very few counties that has refused to pass the Second Amendment Resolution.  Some of the reasons they stated were if they passed this resolution they would then be asked to support resolutions such as supporting or opposing the war in Iraq; supporting or opposing abortion and other similar resolutions.  We have pointed out to them the clear difference in that this resolution supported the citizens constitutional right which they took an oath of office to protect and that none of these examples of issues which they had given was a constitutional right.

During Illinois county board discussions regarding the Pro-Second Amendment Resolution, it has come to my attention that some board members argue that this issue is (1) redundant, because the right to keep and bear arms is already constitutionally protected, and (2) beyond the scope of county governments, because issues regarding constitutional rights ultimately fall on the state and federal governments.  Now that this resolution has been discussed and passed in 90 Illinois counties, that question has been raised, and subsequently answered.

Herein I argue that a resolution affirming protection of the right of individual citizens to keep and bear arms is anything but redundant, and that it is indeed within the scope of Illinois county governments.

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution states two things - that militias are necessary for the security of a free state, and that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. However, the Second Amendment is one of the few Bill of Rights provisions that has not yet been incorporated against state and local infringement via the 14th Amendment. The Illinois constitution (Section 22) likewise mentions the right to keep and bear arms, but is more explicitt than the federal guarantee because it omits prefatory reference to militias: "...the right of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." However, as passed at the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention, the guarantee reads in full: "Subject only to the police power, the right of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Yes you heard it right.  Subject only to the police power".

Joseph Stalin would have been proud of this one!

The prefatory statement "subject to police power" clause not surprisingly was mandated by a strong Chicago contingent, generally favorable to gun control measures then, as they are now. What the preface really means, for Illinois citizens, is that they have absolutely no constitutional protection from state government infringement on their right to keep and bear arms. "Subject only to police power" effectively means that the state legislature can enact, and the state police can enforce, any and all laws that would regulate or prohibit outright the possession of firearms by individual citizens. Moreover, the "home rule" provision enacted at the 1970 Convention likewise empowers local governments, such as Chicago, to enact any form of infringement they choose. That means that Illinois citizen's "right" to own firearms is empty and meaningless, and indefensible in an Illinois court of law!

Precisely due to the facts outlined above, it is anything but redundant that Illinois counties discuss and pass Pro-Second Amendment Resolutions. This issue is indeed county business; counties are among the most local governmental units and as such, counties can best understand and represent the wishes of their citizens. If government is "by the people and for the people", the political wishes of the people are passed upward to ever-larger units of government. Counties inform state senators and representatives, who in turn, inform the state legislature as a whole. That Illinois counties pass resolutions is indeed their business, because with such resolutions, they inform the state legislature on crucial matters concerning the rights and wishes of their citizens.

Indeed, the Sangamon County Board should stop dragging their feet on on this matter, and join the other 90 Illinois counties that have already passed the Pro-Second Amendment Resolution.


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