While this trend has been cropping up in a few other states over the past year, it’s really taking off in New Mexico. Faced with the imminent passage of a raft of new gun control laws, Quay County, a rural area in the eastern part of the state, recently voted to declare itself a gun right’s sanctuary. That gained the attention of other counties away from the urban centers controlled by Democrats and many of them began to follow suit. (Santa Fe New Mexican)

[F]irearms and the right to bear them are important to people in the community.

“It’s a tradition, a way of life,” Quay County Sheriff Russell Shafer said in an interview last week.

With that as the backdrop, it wasn’t very surprising earlier this month when the Quay County Commission voted unanimously for a resolution, requested by Shafer, affirming the right of the sheriff “to not enforce any unconstitutional firearms law against any citizen.”

The nonbinding resolution — spurred by controversial gun control legislation making its way through the Legislature — says the commission “will not authorize or appropriate government funds, resources, employees, agencies, contractors, buildings, detention centers or offices for the purposes of enforcing law that unconstitutionally infringes on the right of the people to keep and bear arms.”

Sometimes change comes slowly, but not in this case. In a matter of days after Quay county passed their resolution, a dozen others (Curry, Lincoln, Union, Socorro, San Juan, Eddy, Valencia, Catron, Chaves, Grant, Hidalgo and Sandoval) had passed either the same measure or one very similar. Granted, these are non-binding resolutions, but the intention is clear. If the state government passes laws infringing on Second Amendment rights, the local sheriffs will not enforce those laws.

That’s not how things are supposed to work, of course. There’s the whole supremacy issue to deal with for starters. But if the Democrats passing these new gun control laws want to be upset about it, they’re going to have to explain why it’s okay for states and cities to defy federal immigration laws for sanctuary cities and states. If you’re going to pick and choose which laws you will or won’t respect, don’t act surprised when someone else does the same thing.

Oddly enough, one of the gun control advocates in question is doing precisely that. Miranda Viscoli of the group, New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, is quoted as saying that law enforcement officials don’t get to pick and choose which laws they uphold and they might need to be arrested if they follow that path. Oh, really? I wonder what Ms. Viscoli’s attitude is about immigration laws being viewed in the same light.