Defying California law, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted this week to allow concealed weapons in local government buildings.
The resolution, approved Tuesday in a 3-2 vote, seeks to challenge Senate Bill 2, a new state gun law (currently pending in the courts) that prohibits concealed carry permit holders from carrying weapons to places that legislators consider “sensitive.”
Those places include government buildings, polling places, schools, public transportation, medical facilities, playgrounds and bars.
“The Board of Supervisors finds that SB 2, a law passed by the California Legislature, is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, and unconstitutionally infringes on the people's right to bear arms,” the resolution states.
Anyone who has a valid California concealed carry license and a legally registered gun can carry their firearm on county property, “except when exempt by county policy and state and federal law,” it says.
Supervisor Patrick Jones, who introduced the resolution, condemned California's strict gun laws, saying they “do not change criminal behavior.”
Jones, who manages his family's gun store in Redding, said the resolution “allows the legal opportunity for people to carry weapons, properly admitted.”
Questions remain about how much power the resolution has in this deeply conservative Northern California county.
County attorney Gretchen Stuhr told supervisors that workplace policy prohibits county employees from having guns at work, and the resolution “does not repeal” or “place any restrictions on our current anti-violence policy.” in the workplace”.
Stuhr said changing workplace safety policies requires the board to work with county employee unions.
Steve Allen, business manager for California United Public Employees Local 792, which represents about 1,000 Shasta County employees, told The Times in an email that the union was not notified of the resolution and that any such change would have to be negotiated. .
Jones said the resolution applies to members of the public and that he intends to introduce another proposal regarding county employees.
The vote comes six months after the Board of Supervisors passed a largely symbolic resolution saying it would “use all legal means at its disposal to support and defend the Second Amendment.”
The supervisors' new resolution attacks Senate Bill 2, which has been blocked while legal challenges proceed in federal court.
The controversial law, which would go into effect on January 1, prohibits concealed carry permit holders from carrying weapons into a long list of places. The bill also automatically makes businesses gun-free zones unless the owner posts signs explicitly allowing firearms.
In an email to The Times, California press office Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said some parts of the law were not challenged in federal litigation and remain in effect.
These include restrictions on carrying concealed weapons in schools, courthouses, prisons, airports, polling places and government buildings, the press office said.
In Shasta County, where raucous board meetings in recent years have included violent threats against supervisors and a failed attempt by one man to put them all under citizen's arrest, some questioned the wisdom of allowing guns in in such a charged environment.
Supervisor Mary Rickert, who voted against the resolution, said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was heated debate over masks, vaccine requirements and other mandates, a former Shasta County employee who had a concealed carry permit sent him an email with a death threat.
Rickert said he met with a crisis intervention team and was given photos of the man and his vehicle.
“To this day, I keep my eyes open for it,” Rickert said.
“You can't convince me [that] because someone has a concealed weapons permit it is totally harmless.”
Jenny O'Connell, a resident, said she was worried there would be a repeat of the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, when a county employee and his wife opened fire at a party of their colleagues, killing 14 people.
“Just look at the volatile atmosphere inside these chambers,” O'Connell told supervisors before their vote. “Look at this one! You want one of these people to come in and shoot you all? Look how angry everyone is!”
Jeff Gorder, a retired Shasta County public defender, asked whether county department heads who have to discipline employees now will have to worry if they carry guns.
“Let's say someone gets shot. You know this county is going to be sued,” she said.
Others applauded the measure. A woman who said she has four daughters and several grandchildren said “they are all vulnerable” and that “unfortunately, one of the great equalizers is a weapon.”
Jon Knight, a right-wing political activist and conspiracy theorist whom supervisors recently appointed to the board of the local mosquito control district, said California is simply trying to take guns away from law-abiding citizens.
“I really appreciate that you stand up for us, the people, by opposing [this] tyrannical government overreach that attempts to take away all of our freedoms and rights,” he said.
In a video posted online earlier this month, Shasta County Sheriff Michael Johnson said he and his deputies would not enforce Senate Bill 2's restrictions on carrying concealed weapons in sensitive locations.
“It's a fraud. It is a lie and, in my opinion, it is unconstitutional,” Johnson said of the law.
“We will not spend our time and efforts addressing such unnecessary and unconstitutional legislation.”
