Beaufort County Commissioners Move Against the Effective Support of the Second Amendment | Eastern NC Now

    On Monday, November 4, 2019, Beaufort County's Commissioners, with a 5 to 2 Republican majority, voted 3 to 4 to effectively not support the Second Amendment rights of its citizens in relation to its Beaufort County government buildings that currently restrict the rights for law abiding citizens to carry, concealed or otherwise.

    This initiative, not realized, was scantly discussed and failed in ratification, with Commissioners Hood Richardson, R, Stan Deatherage, R, and Frankie Waters, R, voting in the affirmative; Commissioners Jerry Evans, R, John Rebholz, R, Ed Booth, D, and Jerry Langley, D, voting in the negative. And while this short in duration county commissioner general meeting had other issues, none revealed the political stripes of these commissioners more than this one vote; a vote that revealed not only the political philosophy of these commissioners, but their wisdom in dealing with unknown issues going forward; issues representing the greatest liability of our times - providing an safe environment under all conditions for our citizens and our employees.

    These aforementioned unknown issues going forward may be that on some sad occasion, Beaufort County could be visited by the evil of an unhinged gunman bent on murder; as much murder as is possible in an environment where these victims, our citizens and our employees, are unarmed and fully exposed and at the mercy unmitigated evil. The invitational calling card - a sign at eye level at every entry heeded by nearly all stating - "Gun Free Zone". That same "Gun Free Zone" sign suggesting that while one would not break the law by bring their gun on this public property of a Beaufort County government building, there are others who would only see that sign as a drawing card; one suggesting there are the defenseless within this premises; that this building is not a "Gun Free Zone" but a "Free Fire Zone".

The discussion and the vote to Allow Concealed Carry and the vote to Disallow this Issue's Continuance are shown here below:

    As one can see by watching this video (above), the commissioners voted to deny, in effective practice, Beaufort County's citizen's constitutional 2nd Amendment rights.

    As a political move by Commissioner Booth, he motioned, as per Beaufort County's rules of engagement, to deny the reconsideration of this Resolution for the 2nd Amendment for the next 6 months. This motion passed seven to zero as it was considered by all commissioners that this was their one opportunity to decide their effective position on the Second Amendment, in support of allowing our law abiding citizens the right to protect themselves, their families and others ... or not.

    Publisher's note: If you are interested in our Archive of the Beaufort County Commissioners' General Meetings can be found here in this aforementioned enhanced format.

    Additionally, if you wish to catch up on some of the most important Beaufort County Commissioners meeting of 2019 through 2022, click here.