{"id":2445,"date":"2013-03-19T22:49:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-19T22:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/2013\/03\/19\/colorado-sheriff-within-rights-not-to\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T18:21:22","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:21:22","slug":"colorado-sheriff-within-rights-not-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=2445","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Sheriff Within Rights Not To Enforce New Gun Control Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:13953,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.greeleytribune.com\\\/news\\\/crime\\\/5575283-113\\\/gun-state-background-colorado&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.greeleytribune.com\\\/news\\\/crime\\\/5575283-113\\\/gun-state-background-colorado&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:13954,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.denverpost.com\\\/breakingnews\\\/ci_22817663\\\/weld-sheriffs-refusal-enforce-gun-rules-within-letter?source=pkg&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.denverpost.com\\\/breakingnews\\\/ci_22817663\\\/weld-sheriffs-refusal-enforce-gun-rules-within-letter?source=pkg&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:13955,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.5280.com\\\/magazine\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/contender?page=0,5&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/5280.com\\\/magazine\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/contender?page=0,5&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>\nSheriff John Cooke of Weld County, Colorado has been out front in his opposition to the new gun control laws in that state. He led a delegation of sheriffs in testifying against the bills before the Colorado legislature earlier this month. Now he has announced that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greeleytribune.com\/news\/crime\/5575283-113\/gun-state-background-colorado\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">he doesn&#8217;t plan to enforce the new laws<\/a> &#8211; and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/breakingnews\/ci_22817663\/weld-sheriffs-refusal-enforce-gun-rules-within-letter?source=pkg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">he is within the letter of the law.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\"><p>\n<i>&#8220;Why put the effort into enforcing a law that is unenforceable?&#8221; Cooke told The Denver Post on Monday. &#8220;With all of the other crimes that are going on, I don&#8217;t have the manpower, the resources or the desire to enforce laws like that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cooke said this is the first time in his law enforcement career that he has made the decision to not enforce a law.<\/p>\n<p>However, Cooke said, if a person who uses a gun outfitted with a magazine able to hold more than 15 rounds in a crime, that person will be charged under the new law.<\/i>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\nBoth Dave Kopel, a professor at the University of Denver law school, and Richard Collins, a professor at the University of Colorado law school, agree that it is within a sheriff&#8217;s prerogative to decide which laws are given priority for enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>From Dave Kopel:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\"><p>\n<i>&#8220;His primary obligation is to obey the U.S. Constitution and the Colorado Constitution, and he appears to be especially conscientious in making sure he does so,&#8221; Kopel said.<\/p>\n<p>While it may be one of the first instances related to gun-control measures, sheriffs in the past have refused to uphold laws they did not agree with, such as prohibition, Jim Crow and immigration, Kopel said.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>From Richard Collins:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\"><p>\n<i>&#8220;He couldn&#8217;t be punished for not upholding these laws, but he could be ordered by the court to uphold them,&#8221; said Richard Collins, a University of Colorado at Boulder law professor. &#8220;Whether anyone would bring a lawsuit to get the court to order him is pretty uncertain.&#8221;<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Given that Sheriff Cooke is one of the 62 elected (out of 64 total) sheriffs in Colorado, Kopel noted that the primary penalty for noncompliance would be either a recall or to be voted out of office so long as he is faithful to both the US and Colorado constitution.<\/p>\n<p>Of course this just galls the gun prohibitionists in the Colorado legislature. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\"><p>\n<i>State Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, Senate sponsor of the universal-background-checks bill, said a sheriff unwilling or unable to fulfill the duties of the position should step down.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They are putting politics above their job,&#8221; she said.<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That last statement is particularly rich coming from the likes of Sen. Carroll <a href=\"http:\/\/www.5280.com\/magazine\/2012\/10\/contender?page=0,5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">who has her eyes set on the governor&#8217;s office<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>  var _gaq = _gaq || [];<br \/>\n  _gaq.push([&#8216;_setAccount&#8217;, &#8216;UA-39430075-1&#8217;]);<br \/>\n  _gaq.push([&#8216;_trackPageview&#8217;]);<\/p>\n<p>  (function() {<br \/>\n    var ga = document.createElement(&#8216;script&#8217;); ga.type = &#8216;text\/javascript&#8217;; ga.async = true;<br \/>\n    ga.src = (&#8216;https:&#8217; == document.location.protocol ? &#8216;https:\/\/ssl&#8217; : &#8216;http:\/\/www&#8217;) + &#8216;.google-analytics.com\/ga.js&#8217;;<br \/>\n    var s = document.getElementsByTagName(&#8216;script&#8217;)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);<br \/>\n  })();<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sheriff John Cooke of Weld County, Colorado has been out front in his opposition to the new gun control&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[744,1195,45,3202,3203,3204],"class_list":["post-2445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-colorado","tag-dave-kopel","tag-gun-control","tag-prof-richard-collins","tag-sheriff-john-cooke","tag-st-sen-morgan-carroll"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8969,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445\/revisions\/8969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}