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Clay County Votes To Become 2nd Amendment Sanctuary County

Clay County
The Clay County Comission is pictured at its Nov. 26, 2019 meeting.

Clay is now a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary county, becoming the fourth in the state to pass resolutions saying they support the rights of gun owners.

It passed the Clay Commission Tuesday by a 4-to-1 vote, over objections from several public speakers.

As Commissioner Gayward Hendry explained during the meeting, the actual word “sanctuary” is not to be included.

“It’s got a bad connotation. It’s not really what we’re looking for. We’re not a sanctuary for anything except God’s country and honest citizens,” said Hendry at the meeting.

The resolution affirms the Clay’s support of the Second Amendment right to bear arms and declares the county’s opposition to the potential infringement of that right by the state or federal government. But it stops short of outright prevention, said Councilwoman Diane Hutchins.

“If the federal government decides one day to come and take our weapons — and it always is just a vote away — if they decide to do that, we can’t stop them. It’s not going to protect you from losing your weapons. It is, however, going to stop them from making us come and take your weapons.”

In Florida: Lake, Marion, Suwanee and Bradford counties have already declared themselves Second Amendment Sanctuaries.

WJCT News partner News4Jax filed a video report from the meeting. It’s available at this News4Jax webpage. The full meeting video is available on the Clay County government website.

Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter at @cydwjctnews.

Cyd Hoskinson began working at WJCT on Valentine’s Day 2011.