CO Sheriff: 'Should Be Able to Fire Representatives Who Ignore Constituents'

When El Paso County, Colorado Sheriff Terry Maketa spoke to Breitbart News on September 4, he said “constituents should be able to fire representatives who ignore constituents.”

Just hours before, Maketa attended a rally where he lent his voice “to citizens fighting for their constitutional rights through the recall process.” 

Speaking to Breitbart News, Maketa made it clear that he understands Coloradans’ frustration with the new gun control laws: “If you look at it from the macro-level, these laws did not deliver what was promised.” 

“Number one–they were passed under the promise that they would prevent another Aurora or Sandy Hook but there is no validity to that statement,” he explained. 

“Number two–these laws were not born in Colorado. Rather, they are just a copy of what NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others are trying to do all around the country,” Maketa said. “Number three–the laws are unenforceable. They ban ‘high capacity’ magazines purchased after the laws went into effect on July 1, but provide no mechanism for knowing which magazines were in fact owned or transferred prior to that date.”

“Also, the rules of possession at a length of 72 hours mean that if your firearm is out of your possession for more than 72 hours you have to do a background check to get it back,” Maketa revealed. “I have a friend in Special Forces, and what this rule means for him is that each time he’s deployed and leaves his gun with this fiance, she has to have an initial background check and then another background check every 30 until he returns in order to keep possession of the firearms.”

“This is just one more burden on a man who is fighting for our country,” Maketa said.

“Number four–the mandated background check on every gun sale requires that the check be done with an Federal Firearm License (FFL) holder,” he said. “But as the name suggests, these are federal license holders under federal guidelines, not under state guidelines. Yet the state wants to mandate their actions?”

When Breitbart News asked Maketa what he thought of the recall efforts, he said: “I firmly believe that if voters think their representatives are not representing their views fairly, then they ought to be able to fire them.”

“Constituents should be able to fire representatives who ignore constituents,” Maketa stated. “Voters think the two senators currently being recalled dismissed their opinions–literally said they did not want to hear from them–and when a representative shows that kind of arrogance, that kind of tyranny, the people ought to be able to fire them.”

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.