Loren Culp, the police chief in the small town of Republic, Washington, has pledged not to enforce a ballot measure approved by voters statewide earlier this month.
The NRA and others have already filed suit to fight the law in court, but Culp decided to take matters into his own hands.
“I cannot and will not enforce this law,” Culp said on “Fox & Friends Sunday.” In a Facebook post after Election Day, Culp effectively announced that he’d instructed Republic police officers not to enforce the new law when it goes into effect on Jan. 1.
Initiative 1639, which passed with 59 percent support, raises the age to buy semiautomatic rifles to 21 and enacts a list of other restrictions and penalties.
Fox News’ Ed Henry on Sunday seemed to compare Culp’s actions to those of so-called “sanctuary cities” — “I assume you got the idea from a lot of liberal cities in this country that do not want to follow federal immigration laws,” he said — but such a comparison would be inaccurate: Most so-called sanctuary cities, though there are differing definitions for the term, simply decline to voluntarily cooperate with federal immigration authorities in some or all cases.
