A New York sheriff apparently urged a group of Oath Keepers at an event on Saturday to defy the state’s gun laws and throw away invitations to renew their handgun permits.
“I’m asking everybody who gets those invitations to throw them in the garbage, because that’s where they belong,” Sheriff Thomas Lorey told a group of Oath Keepers, a loose organization of police and military officers who pledge not to enforce laws it deems unconstitutional. Video of Lorey’s comments was posted online Sunday.
“They go in the garbage because, for 100 years or more, ever since the inception of pistol permits, nobody has ever been required to renew them,” the sheriff said.
Lorey was referring to the 2013 NY SAFE Act, which mandates that handgun owners update their permits every five years with the sheriff’s office. The sheriff said he purposely signed up his county for the law’s pilot program to make a point.
“Let’s have everybody’s permit expire the same day and let ’em see what they’re going to do with it,” he said, adding that he believed courts would strike down the law anyway.
Watch Lorey’s statement below:
h/t RawStory
So we have a law enforcement official telling folks to defy and ignore laws that they don’t agree with? Why stop at just the one law, every citizen should just ignore laws that they don’t like. #Fire this dude
This man has sworn to uphold the law. He’s not only saying he’s not going to live up to that oath but also inciting folks to break the law. He should be removed without further compensation.
This guy right here is the guy you should turn your back on.
Does anyone in this nation understand the meaning of a law any longer?
A law is a collective act, determining what is best for the community, big or small, to which it applies. If it is a bad law, it can be changed.
The rampant, almost psychotic belief in individualism prompts these people to believe that the First and Second Amendments mean completely free and unfettered individual freedom to do whatever one pleases at whatever cost to the community.
There is no such thing as a sovereign individual: a sovereign, by definition, rules a collection of people. By definition, in democracy, the sovereign is the people, but as a whole, and not one by one by one.
Any law enforcement office who advocates disobeying a law in either their public or private life should be removed from office. They do not get to choose which laws are valid or invalid. This gentleman is no longer fit for office and he should be removed.