Venango County commissioners have approved a resolution that declares the county to be a Second Amendment county.
In the resolution – in keeping with the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Pennsylvania Constitution – the commissioners express their “intent to stand for Second Amendment Rights and to oppose any effort to unconstitutionally restrict such rights of its citizens to keep and bear arms.
“The Venango County Board of Commissioners hereby declares Venango County is a Second Amendment County and as such shall celebrate, promote, and preserve for the people of, on, and in Venango County, their right to bear arms as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Commissioners Chairman Sam Breene, during the board’s meeting on Tuesday, said the resolution says what people who live in Venango County already know – that “around here we support the Second Amendment.”
He said the language in the resolution is identical to that of resolutions in many other western Pennsylvania counties.
In the opinion of constitutional lawyers, Breene said, the uniform wording of the resolution in many counties strengthens the counties’ case in the event of a legal challenge.
“This resolution is very needed,” Jim Kronmiller, the organizer of the Second Amendment sanctuary movement in Venango County, said to the commissioners after the resolution passed.
“Half the counties in the country have resolutions like this to protect our God-given rights. This is huge, I cannot thank you enough.”
Kronmiller said Venango County is the 19th county in the state to declare itself a Second Amendment county.
A number of additional petitions with signatures were not turned in by the businesses and individuals collecting signatures when the pandemic hit, so the actual number of signatures is much higher than 600, Breene said.
“This is the first resolution we have signed that I want to frame a copy and hang it on the wall of my office,” he said.
In another matter, it was announced at the commissioners’ meeting that Kit Woods, housing manager at Venango County Human Services, is retiring after 39 years with the county.
“Congratulations to her and thank you to her for her decades of service to the people of Venango County. We wish her the best,” Breene said.
