Wagoner County sheriff opposes proposed gun bans, restrictions

WAGONER — Wagoner County Sheriff Bob Colbert said he largely opposes new gun restrictions proposed by President Barack Obama last week.

“We had another terrible tragedy where a bunch of kids lost their lives and immediately our president and vice president started talking about taking guns away,” Colbert said in a telephone interview.

“Let’s enforce the laws we have now. Let’s follow up on some of these people who lie on their applications, follow up on what (laws) we have.”

Obama’s proposed guncontrol plan includes reinstating bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and requiring background checks for all gun purchases, including private sales.

The president’s proposal, including 23 executive orders, was in response to recent mass shootings, particularly last month’s massacre at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 dead, including 20 first-graders.

“It’s never the lawabiding citizens who commit the crimes,” Colbert said. “It’s the outlaws. Nothing’s going to change for them. They are still going to get their weapons.

“For the president to come out so quick without trying to work anything out with Congress and start whipping out these orders, I just have a problem with it.”

Gun show loophole

Colbert just started his second term as sheriff. He spent 23 years with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and a combined eight years with the Claremore, Pryor and Salina police departments.

The sheriff said he can see the rationale behind expanded background checks.

“I think gun shows are terrible,” Colbert said. “You walk in any gun show, and you can watch illegal aliens walk around with bags full of pistols. I have a problem with that.”

The Second Amendment states that “a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Colbert said he will “absolutely” enforce any new gun law.

“But I’m not going to violate anybody’s rights, either,” the sheriff said. “It’s against the law for us to violate anybody’s rights.”