UPDATED: Morgan wants to turn Charlestown into a haven for gun nuts

Good news for those who want to own a bazooka

By Will Collette

UPDATE: Morgan got her wish in her home base of Hopkinton, which adopted her new pet project - an extremist "2nd Amendment Sanctuary" resolution. They did it last night, May 6, on a 3-2 vote. 

Hardly a week goes by without a mass shooting or violent act by far-right wing extremists. So naturally, that's the cue for far-right wing extremist state Senator Elaine Morgan to ask Charlestown and other South County towns to defy state and federal laws on guns.

She even issued a news release via the General Assembly's news department, which appears verbatim below.

Morgan is from Hopkinton and her Senate district includes Hopkinton, Richmond, Exeter, the northern half of Charlestown and a piece of West Greenwich.

She wants these five towns to adopt resolutions declaring those towns to be "Second Amendment Sanctuaries" where local police are expected to use their own discretion when enforcing state and federal gun laws. If local police think a law violates their interpretation of the Second Amendment, they would be free to ignore it.

There's a term for this: "nullification." It is a doctrine that holds that laws are just suggestions and that if a state, town or individual ("sovereign citizen") thinks a law is unjust, they can just ignore it. The idea of nullification was a major cause of the US Civil War, which by the way, was lost by the slave-owning South who were big fams of nullification.

Morgan's local legislative cohorts, state Rep. Blake "Flip" Filippi (who says he lives somewhere around here) and Rep. Justin Price (R-Richmond) also love guns and support nullification. 

I haven't seen them come out publicly in support of Morgan's initiative, at least as of this writing, but if asked, I'm sure they will. Price and Filippi are active opponents of gun control legislation currently before the General Assembly.

I am so sick of gun violence. I am sick of mass shootings in our schools, places of worship, streets and other public places. I am also sick of the NRA and right-wing gun nuts using the oddly worded language of the Second Amendment to block any common sense measures to curb gun violence.

When Rhode Island inevitably suffers its first mass shooting, I hope you will remember the role Morgan (and Filippi and Price) played in expediting that tragically likely event. 

Below the fold, you will find Morgan's State House news release in its entirety. I urge you to read it and then ask yourself whether Morgan represents YOU or the gun lobby.


Sen. Morgan asks local towns to declare themselves ‘Second Amendment Sanctuaries’

STATE HOUSE – Sen. Elaine J. Morgan is asking the communities in her district to adopt resolutions declaring themselves “Second Amendment Sanctuary Towns,” as the Burrillville Town Council did last week.

Senator Morgan (R-Dist. 34, Hopkinton, Charlestown, Exeter, Richmond, West Greenwich) sent a letter to the town councils and police chiefs in the five towns she represents urging them to make the declaration.

Last week, the Burrillville Town Council adopted a resolution stating that the town will support “the Burrillville police department’s [right] to exercise sound discretion when enforcing laws impacting the rights of citizens under the Second Amendment.” The Glocester Town Council is slated to discuss a similar proposal May 16.

“I swore an oath when taking office to protect and uphold our Constitution from any infringements. It is with substantial consideration that I bring forth this matter of discussion based on stabilizing our jurisdictions’ ability to uphold and defend our 2^nd amendment rights,” Senator Morgan wrote in the letter. “An abundance of states, counties, cities, and towns across the United States have declared themselves “Second Amendment Sanctuaries” which means any gun-control laws that infringe upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms will not be enforced.”

She continued, “Between 2014 and 2017, Rhode Island maintained a position in the top five LEAST likely states to be injured by a firearm, death resulting. Considering this movement, I humbly ask the towns of Charlestown, Richmond, Hopkinton, West Greenwich and Exeter for the support of our local Police Departments and Town Council members in proposing a similar resolution as that of Burrillville.  It is imperative that these five historic towns as well as our local Police Departments and Town Council members work together in preserving and maintaining our freedom and constitutional rights. We must enforce the legislation currently on the books.”