The Essex County T E A Party and other concerned citizens respectfully request that the Essex County Board of Supervisors

The Essex County T E A Party and other concerned citizens respectfully request that the Essex County Board of Supervisors submit the following ordinance for adoption following whatever action is required to invoke such an ordinance.

“Essex County declares that the right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the
State shall not be questioned. This ordinance further nullifies all federal, state or local acts in violation of the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution and declares them to be invalid within Essex County. “

The right to nullify unconstitutional laws is granted under the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution. “The powers not delegated to the United States

by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”.

The Commonwealth of Virginia’s Constitution contains the following under “Art. I, § 13 (enacted 1776 without explicit right to keep and bear arm s;

“That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state, therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power. "Therefore, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed" added in 1971). …”

Two Virginia attorneys general have issued different legal opinions on it. In 1993, one said the right is not intended for all citizens; in 2006, Bob McDonnell, the attorney general at that time and now Governor, said it is.

Since the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia both address this right, action by the Essex County Board of Supervisors would further support this right and give notice that its citizens will oppose any action to “infringe” on this right.