According to Firearm Chronicles
We’re still a couple of years away from New York’s next gubernatorial election, but Lewis County Sheriff Michael P. Carpinelli is already throwing his hat into the ring. On Thursday, the upstate sheriff announced that he’s running for the Republican nomination in 2022 with a couple of swipes at current governor Andrew Cuomo.
Back in February, Sheriff Carpinelli joined me on Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co. to talk about a proposed ordinance in Lewis County that would prohibit county funds from being used to enforce New York gun laws. While Carpinelli wasn’t the one who suggested the ordinance, he did back the proposal and said he was willing to risk being removed from office by Gov. Cuomo over the issue. As the sheriff told me, while he took an oath of office to execute the laws of New York, he believes that when those laws conflict with the U.S. Constitution he is duty bound to follow the higher law.
The sheriff has been an outspoken advocate of the right to keep and bear arms long before the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement began to take hold in New York. Back in 2015, after the shootings in San Bernardino, California, Carpinelli publicly urged residents to exercise their Second Amendment rights to protect themselves and their community.
As the debate over guns intensifies, Carpinelli said now is an essential time for gun owners to protect their Second Amendment right. “When you exercise your right and your privileges, you maintain them. When you don’t, at times, we tend to lose them,” he explained.
On Facebook, the debate in response to Carpinellis’s opinion rages on. A lot of people agreed with the Sheriff. But other Lewis County residents said they don’t trust all gun owners are responsible. One commenter wrote, “This is not the Wild West.” Another wrote, “What would be the sense of having any police force if everyone is now going to be encouraged to be armed?”