LTE – JoAnn Utphall – 7-14-2021
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The towns of Hay River, Grant and Elk Mound have passed the Second Amendment (Constitutional Rights Protection) resolution. Many Dunn County residents are asking their Dunn County townships to pass similar ones. One argument against this is that gun confiscation could not happen in the US but history tells us differently.
In 1838, Missouri governor Boggs ordered extermination of the Mormons and forced removal. General Lucas imposed four terms upon the conquered Mormons: take their leaders into custody; use their personal property to repay costs, debts, and damages Missourians suffered; confiscate all arms; and order the Mormons to leave the state. Governor Boggs issued Ex. Order 44 to “exterminate” a community of disarmed Mormons who were then massacred at Hawn’s Mill.
After the Civil War, the former slave states enacted codes similar Black Codes which include the repeated disarming of black Freedmen.
In 1890, the US Army’s attempt to confiscate weapons from the Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee in South Dakota resulted in a massacre of 297 men, women and children.
In 1917, with WWI looming, the US federal government seized the arms of about 6,300 German-Americans and Austro-Hungarian-Americans and forced them into internment camps .
In 1942, the US federal government conducted a disarming of 110,000 Japanese-Americans and 11,507 German-Americans, 1,881 Italian-Americans and Americans of Czechoslovakian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Hungarian descent prior to their detention in internment camps.
In 1988, during “Operation Clean Sweep”, the Chicago Police Dept. and the Chicago Housing Authority searched every public housing unit in the city without a warrant to seize all firearms.
In 1991, New York mayor David Dinkins got the city council to ban “assault weapons” and using a 1967 database of registered long guns, Dinkins had the state police to go door-to-door to look for weapons.
In 2001, using a registration database, the City of Chicago once again begins door-to-door warrantless confiscation raids on residents. The shady taskforce was known as the Chicago Anti Gun Enforcement (CAGE) unit.
In 2005, during Hurricane Katrina New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin banned all weapons and the Police and National Guard went door-to-door to seize weapons without warrants. In response, Congress passed the Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006 prohibiting mass confiscation. Citizens who have had their weapons seized, successfully sued to recover weapons but the City of New Orleans, to this day, has not returned the majority of the confiscated weapons.
In 2013, the City of New York once again required the registration of all weapons and began confiscation of what the city has termed “assault rifles.”
In 2017, Governor Kenneth Mapp of the US Virgin Islands ordered confiscation of all weapons prior to the landfall of Hurricane Irma.
In 2018, Deerfield, IL demands that “assault weapons” and magazines be turned in or face confiscation.
In 2020 Champaign, IL Mayor Deborah Feinen issues an executive order to stop gun and ammo sales due to Covid-19.
Instead of the board voting on this resolution, both the Grant and Elk Mound Township had General Voting Meeting where the residents voted on the resolution. Last week at the Town of Elk Mound, 58 residents voted for the resolution and 3 voted against it.
JoAnn Utphall
Boyceville