Commissioner Whitfield proclaims Second Amendment Awareness and Celebration Week

Commissioner Shannon Whitfield said it was an honor and pleasure to designate March 1-7 as Second Amendment Awareness and Celebration Week in Walker County.

Whitfield, during the Feb. 27 commissioner’s meeting, signed the proclamation recognizing the U.S. Constitution as the supreme law of the land and the right to keep and bear arms under the Constitution’s Second Amendment. Georgia residents have the right to keep and bear arms “without limitation,” it says. The attendees at the meeting applauded his action and posed with him for a photo to show support for the Second Amendment.

Whitfield acknowledged Roy Hambrick Jr. for spearheading the {span style=”text-decoration: underline;”} public awareness effort, Silent No Longer. Hambrick mentioned his efforts at a recent commissioner’s meeting.

“I’m a working class citizen, just like everybody here,” Hambrick said, adding that he is tired of attacks on working class citizens.

Hambrick said it is time for citizens to hold their elected officials accountable, to learn about issues and to support their elected officials; citizens must come together as a community to accomplish these goals.

The proclamation dovetails with work Hambrick has been doing to heighten public awareness in Walker and surrounding counties.

According to the proclamation, the commissioner opposes any law, regulation or act that would infringe on the Second Amendment rights of Walker County citizens and calls upon the Georgia Legislature and the U.S. Congress “to preserve, uphold and protect the rights of all citizens to keep and bear arms under the U.S. Constitution and to reject any provision, law or regulation that may infringe on those rights.”

“Walker County is rich in generational respect and reverence for these rights,” dating back to the county’s formation in 1833, it says. “The surrendering of such rights by citizens only serves to strip away at the our time-honored cultural traditions.”

The proclamation states about 8,000 Walker County residents hold Georgia weapons carry licenses, and countless other residents own firearms for hunting and protection.

County residents “derive economic and social benefit from all safe forms of firearms recreation, hunting and shooting” conducted in the county, it says.

Whitfield said he collaborated with Sheriff Steve Wilson on the document and thanked county Economic Development Director Robert Wardlaw and county Public Relations Director Joe Legge for their assistance in refining the proclamation’s wording.