Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
With more states passing stronger gun control laws, rural sheriffs across the country are taking their role as defenders of the Constitution to a new level by protesting such restrictions and, in some cases, refusing to enforce the laws.
Sheriff Mike Lewis considers himself the last man standing for the people of Wicomico County, Maryland.
"State police and highway patrol get their orders from the governor," the sheriff said. "I get my orders from the citizens in this county."
Lewis and other like-minded sheriffs have been joined by groups like Oath Keepers and the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, both of which encourage law enforcement officers to take a stand against gun control laws.
The role of a sheriff
While the position of sheriff is not found in the U.S. Constitution, it is listed in state constitutions. Nearly all of America's 3,080 sheriffs are elected to their positions, whereas state and city police officials are appointed.
Lewis and other sheriffs, and their supporters, say that puts them in the best position to stand up to gun laws they consider unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms.
"The role of a sheriff is to be the interposer between the law and the citizen," said Maryland Delegate Don Dwyer, an Anne Arundel County Republican. "He should stand between the government and citizen in every issue pertaining to the law."
When Lewis was president of the Maryland Sheriffs' Association, he testified with other sheriffs against the state's Firearms Safety Act 
(FSA) before it was enacted in 2013. One of the strictest gun laws in the nation, the act requires gun applicants to supply fingerprints and complete training to obtain a handgun license online. It bans 45 types of firearms, limits magazines to 10 rounds and outlaws gun ownership for people who have been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility.
After Lewis opposed the bill, he said he was inundated with emails, handwritten letters, phone calls and visits from people thanking him for standing up for gun rights.
"I knew this was a local issue, but I also knew it had serious ramifications on the U.S. Constitution, specifically for our Second Amendment right," said Lewis, one of 24 sheriffs in the state. "It ignited fire among sheriffs throughout the state. Those in the rural areas all felt the way I did."
In New York, the state sheriff's association has publicly decried portions of the SAFE Act, state legislation that broadened the definition of a banned assault weapon, outlawed magazines holding more than 10 rounds and created harsher punishments for anyone who kills a first-responder in the line of duty.
A handful of the state's 62 sheriffs have vowed not to enforce the high-capacity magazine and assault-weapon bans. One of the most vocal is Sheriff Tony Desmond of Schoharie County, population 32,000. He believes his refusal to enforce the SAFE Act won him re-election in 2013.
"If you have an (assault) weapon, which under the SAFE Act is considered illegal, I don't look at it as being illegal just because someone said it was," he said.