Way back in the day, when wagons were made of wood and built by hand, the wagon wheel was pushed on to the axle and the then a long iron nail was driven through a hole in the end of the axle to hold the wheel in place.

That was the linchpin.  The sole job of the linchpin was to keep the wheel from falling of.

It was such small but important component of building a good wagon that the term linchpin has entered the lexicon as a critical piece or person that holds a complex system together.

Government is big and complex.  If you are a reader of this blog (or a conservative in general) you probably just said “no shit, it’s too big and too complex if you ask me,” or something to that effect, after reading the previous sentence.

The linchpin in the law is the enforcement.

The reason all of us are not in jail all the time is because law enforcement can’t enforce all the laws, against all of us, every second of every day.

The legislature can pass all the laws it wants.  It often does.  Some of those laws may be overturned by the courts.

But the legislature on its own cannot compel compliance.  It is law enforcement that must make sure people obey the law or be punished for it where the rubber meets the road.

If law enforcement decides not to enforce the law, all the committee meetings, papers signed, and stump speeches given mean exactly diddly shit.

Welcome to the State of Washington.

Several sheriffs in Washington state counties refuse to enforce new gun-law measure

Ha ha ha ha ha… fucking A!

Some sheriffs in several conservative Washington counties have refused to enforce the state’s sweeping restrictions on semi-automatic rifles until the courts decide whether they are constitutional.

Sheriffs in twelve, mostly rural, counties have decided not to enforce the law until the courts decide on the challenge, including Grant, Lincoln, Okanogan, Cowlitz, Douglas, Benton, Pacific, Stevens, Yakima, Wahkiakum, Mason and Klickitat. The police chief of Republic followed the sheriffs’ route.

“I swore an oath to defend our citizens and their constitutionally protected rights,” Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones told the Associated Press. “I do not believe the popular vote overrules that.”

Lincoln County Sheriff Wade Magers said 75 percent of voters in his county voted against the bill and called the new rules unenforceable.

I really like the idea of Law Enforcement Officials deciding not to obey illegal orders on our side.  It is a refreshing change.

“The political grandstanding is disheartening,” Renee Hopkins, the chief executive of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, told the Associated Press. “If they do not [run the background checks], we will have a huge problem.”

Hopkins, whose group pushed for the initiative, added that only a small number of Washington’s top law enforcement officials spoke against the measure.

King and Clark County sheriffs have said they will enforce the measure while it was being challenged in court.

Renee Hopkins can kiss by hairy ass.  Most of the counties in the Blue zone of Washington State are sanctuary counties.

An illegal can drive drunk, run over a family taking a walk, get out an rape the survivors, and if he spotted in one of those counties, those Sheriffs won’t hand him over to the Federal authorities that put out the warrant for his arrest, if they arrest him at all.

That is perfectly alright with Renee Hopkins, but if some Sheriff decides that a blanket gun ban is a violation of the Constitution, that’s a “huge problem.”

Sanctuary cities and counties, as well as the states that have legalized or decriminalized marijuana have proven have established precedence that local officials and law enforcement can refuse of enforce laws they disagree with politically.

It has only become a matter of time until law enforcement on our side did the same when it came to guns.

I want more of this.