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Upshur declared Second Amendment sanctuary county

BUCKHANNON — The Upshur County Commission has declared Upshur County a Second Amendment sanctuary upon a resolution signed Thursday during its regular meeting.

The resolution states in part that the county commission “wishes to express its intent to stand as a sanctuary county for Second Amendment rights and to oppose, with the limits of the Constitution of the United States and the State of West Virginia, any efforts to unconstitutionally restrict such rights, and to use such reasonable and legal means as the County Commission of Upshur County, West Virginia may hereafter approve to protect the rights of the citizens of Upshur County to keep and bear arms.”

Commission president Terry Cutright said, “I have gotten more calls on this in favor of the sanctuary county than anything I have received calls on since I have been on county commission.”

Commissioners Sam Nolte and Kristie Tenney both indicated they had also received several calls in favor of the resolution.

Nolte moved to approve the resolution, seconded by Tenney and the motion passed unanimously.

Cutright said during the last month he has received several requests for the Upshur County Commission to pass such a resolution.

“We wanted to wait until we had the County Commissioners Association of West Virginia meeting in Charleston and make our decision after we talked to some of the other counties,” he said.

Cutright said Putnam County’s resolution was the model for the Upshur County resolution. Putnam became the first county in West Virginia to pass such a resolution.

Other counties including Cabell, Wirt, Nicholas, Fayette, Logan and Preston have followed. Fort Gay is the only town to adopt a resolution so far.

The commission president expects more counties to approve the resolution in the coming weeks. Some county commissions meet monthly or twice a month.

“It would surprise me if they didn’t,” he said.

Cutright pointed to the purpose of the Second Amendment.

“The right to bear arms isn’t to keep bad guys or the outlaws out of your house,” he said. “It’s to keep the government out of your house.”

In other business, the commission:

• approved the resignation of animal control officer Dustin Hollen effective Feb. 7.

• approved a 60-day extension in the Riffle case to allow the residents to continue with clean-up efforts. A petition had been filed by the Upshur County Safe Structures and Sites Enforcement Board on Dec. 20.

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