Radford Becomes 2nd Amendment Sanctuary City
By DAVID QUESENBERRY
Patriot Publishing
In an unexpected move, the Radford City Council approved a resolution designating the City as a Second Amendment Sanctuary.
At the start of the meeting, Councilman Guy Wohlford moved that the Council agenda be amended to include a resolution to signify Radford as a second amendment sanctuary city. His motion was seconded by Vice-Mayor Seth Gillespie. During discussion of the motion, Mayor David Horton said he preferred that the issue be moved to a future meeting if Council wished to consider it. He felt that the Council had not had the opportunity to talk through what the resolution meant. The issue had come up before Council in 2019 he said, and had brought up several serious concerns.
Horton added there was a process at the state and federal level for dealing with laws felt to be unconstitutional. Since Virginia was a Dillon’s Rule state he said, the City could not adopt measures saying whether it would do or not do something against state law. “I would prefer this for a future meeting rather than do it this evening” he said. Wohlford responded “I would prefer to go ahead with it.” The resolution was added to the agenda by a 4 to 1 affirmative vote with Horton dissenting.
Council also heard from citizens on the proposed resolution. Connie Wohlford requested that Council adopt the resolution making Radford a Second Amendment Sanctuary. She said the resolution would honor the U.S. Constitution which Council was sworn to uphold. “I strongly believe our community is safer” she said, “when it’s not just the bad guys who have guns. Our families are safer when the good guys are armed as well.” She felt that being a second amendment sanctuary city would be a deterrent to crime especially for armed criminals. “It seems logical to me that that would be what we would all want for our citizens” she said.
Mary Sims, a lifelong resident of Radford, urged Council to pass the resolution making Radford a 2A sanctuary city. The reason she said was because we live under a Constitution that a lot of people died to defend. “Take care of your city, take care of your people. The decisions you make here impact a lot of people. Stand up against Richmond” she urged.
Later in the meeting, Council took up further discussion on the sanctuary resolution. Councilman Wohlford read the resolution into the record. The resolution referred to three Supreme Court cases which did the following: “affirmed an individual’s right to possess firearms unconnected with service in a militia, for traditionally lawful purposes such as self-defense within the home; affirmed that the right of an individual to keep and bear arms, as set forth in the Second Amendment is incorporated into the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment and is enforceable against states; and that firearms that are part of ordinary military equipment which could contribute to the common defense, are protected by the 2nd Amendment.” The resolution also mentioned a section of the Virginia Constitution, Article 1, Section 1, 3 that states that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
The resolution expressed the intent of the City to stand in support of 2nd Amendment rights and oppose, within limits of the U.S. and Virginia constitutions, unconstitutional restriction of such rights through legal means at its disposal. The resolution held that no public funds of the City could be used to restrict guarantees under the 2nd Amendment nor would the city aid federal, state, or local agencies in restriction of these rights. Councilman Wohlford then moved to approve the resolution and was seconded by Vice-Mayor Gillespie.
During discussion on the motion, Councilwoman Jessi Foster noted that she voted against a similar sanctuary motion for illegal aliens and that she would vote “No” on this resolution. Foster said she would not “ask our law enforcement to go against the laws as they are currently on the books.” She said that the issue for her was not so much a political issue as it was an enforcement issue.
Vice-Mayor Gillespie said he fully supported designating Radford as a 2nd Amendment sanctuary city. He acknowledged that state law superseded any local ordinance. “This resolution like many of the resolutions we pass here” he said, “are symbolic in nature.” “I do personally appreciate some of the common sense gun law measures, but I fully support the Second Amendment and all amendments of the Constitution.”
Wohlford added that he had done some research on Google and with AI and learned that 95 percent of the political jurisdictions in Virginia have passed these resolutions. “Seems like a popular thing to do” he said. Foster responded she still was not asking local law enforcement to go against the law. She felt that the burden would fall on law enforcement which “puts them in an unfair position being that they are sworn to uphold the law.”
Mayor Horton said that he felt designation of a sanctuary area was not the appropriate action to take with concerns about the Constitution or individual rights. The City operated in the Commonwealth under Dillon’s Rule, which allows the city to only exercise those powers that the state authorizes it to do. Virginia is not a “home rule” state which would give localities more leeway in what they wanted to do. Horton said that by creating a sanctuary area, the City was sending a message to the General Assembly that it was violating the Dylan Rule. Another concern was that the City’s intent not to allow its law enforcement personnel to enforce laws or work with the state to enforce laws might jeopardize any grant funding to the Police Department.
Horton said he favored the approach used in 2019 when a Second Amendment sanctuary was first proposed. He read a letter into the record that was sent to the City’s state delegate, state senator, Attorney General and the Governor noting the citizen’s concerns. In addition a tape of the Council meeting was included, as well as written comments from citizens and Council members.
After reading the letter, Horton proposed that a similar letter be prepared and sent to leaders. He said that the issue could have been handled differently if it had been on the agenda to let people come and express their opinion either way. He thought that the Council should not rush into this but to consider what was being done and were there better ways to send a message.
Following the discussion, Council voted 3 to 2 to approve the Second Amendment Sanctuary resolution. Voting in favor were Wohlford, Gillespie and Artrip; voting against were Horton and Foster.