WHITEHALL, Wis. — Peppering heavily right-wing Trempealeau County, which carried Donald Trump with 57.5% in 2020, are yard signs proclaiming “Second Amendment Sanctuary,” compleat with an American flag theme. Although opposition signs are rare, the issue has split the rural county, population 28,000. A centerpiece of the sanctuary movement appears to be Osseo Community Church. A Winona Post report on a May 12 meeting of the County Board’s Law Enforcement Committee quoted Pastor Larry Hoekstra and his wife. Terry Hoekstra warned of an anti-Christian invasion: “The people who are being taken and bused from town to town, from the border, many of which are from Islamic countries.” Said Larry Hoekstra: “We need to protect ourselves from the growing apostasy that is not only in our churches, but in our world. They hate us. They want to destroy us and our country. We need to be able to defend ourselves.” It’s an argument against regulations on gun ownership, even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms for self-defense in the home and in 2010 overruled stated and local gun laws. In Whitehall the Trempealeau County Board chair, John Aasen, said he’s a Second Amendment supporter but sees little practical effect if the Board were to declare the county a Second Amendment sanctuary. The label may sound good but is “unenforceable, really kind of meaningless,” he said.
Road-side drama. Few of the placards are hand-made, but most, indeed hundreds, are mass produced in an emotional yet highly organized campaign to make a statement. A showdown looms before the Trempealeau County Board of Supervisors.
What “sanctuary”means
The term “sanctuary” derivThe term “sanctuary” derives from 1980s and a church-based local movement to refuse to help federal immigration agents make arrests. The Second Amendment Sanctuary movement began in 2013 in primarily rural Carroll County in Maryland. So far about 1,200 local governments in 42 states have adopted Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions – out of 19,000 such local government units. These are extreme right-wing pockets politically. Carroll County, for example, voted 2-1 for Trump in 2020. Constitutional law experts see the resolution as silly — expressive and symbolic but carrying no legal force.