County Attorney Ed Ormsby read a statement in reaction to recent gun control efforts announced by President Joe Biden. InkFreeNews photo by Lasca Randels.

By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — The Kosciusko County Commissioners meeting Tuesday, April 13, centered around Second Amendment rights and honoring those who died while defending our country.

County Attorney Ed Ormsby read a prepared statement regarding President Joe Biden’s recent executive orders addressing gun control.

The statement comes months after the county declared itself to be a “Second Amendment Sanctuary County.”

According to language in the two-page speech document, on April 8, President Biden announced executive orders and other actions regarding gun policy.

On April 8, Biden announced plans to regulate homemade gun kits, touted the use of Red Flag laws and announced the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would be David Chipman, described in the county statement as a “radical anti-gun activist.”

Ormsby also went on to say that Biden will seek to ban assault weapons, institute a gun buyback program, restrict the number of firearms an individual may purchase per month to one and prohibit all online sales of firearms, ammunition, kits and gun parts.

County officials are concerned about these developments.

When the Kosciusko Commissioners meet on April 27, they will consider a resolution to state its policy on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. 

Kosciusko County Sheriff Kyle Dukes will be at that meeting and will issue a proclamation from the sheriff’s office regarding the same.

Commissioner President Bob Conley was presented with a certificate and a personalized Honor & Remember flag in recognition of his uncle, Private 1st Class Elbert J. Conley, who was killed in action.

The commissioners and sheriff invite residents concerned about their right to keep and bear arms to be present at that meeting. 

In other business, representatives of the American Legion Post 49 Honor and Remembrance Committee attended the meeting, with Honor and Remember of Indiana LLC Director Don Finnegan speaking on behalf of the organization. 

“First of all, I want to thank Kosciusko County for flying the Honor & Remember flag. I would say city, county, this is probably the fourth in the state of Indiana, give or take, of actually physically flying the flag,” said Finnegan, who is from the Muncie area. 

Finnegan read aloud a portion of President Ronald Reagan’s speech given Nov. 11, 1985, at Arlington National:

“It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives — the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember and say thank you.”

Commissioner President Bob Conley was then called to the podium and presented with a certificate and a personalized Honor & Remember flag in recognition of his uncle, Private 1st Class Elbert J. Conley, who was killed in action. 

Upon accepting the items, an emotional Conley said he has a picture of his uncle hanging in his barbershop. 

“Every day I look at that and thank God that he was willing to sacrifice so that we could be free today,” Conley said.

In other news: 

• U. S. Army Veteran Mark Fick of Warsaw was honored as Veteran of the Month. 
• Sheriff Dukes gave a public shout-out to county 911 dispatchers in recognition of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. 
• Commissioners approved County Highway Superintendent Steve Moriarty’s recommendation of a bid award for the small structure project on County Farm Road to Ransbottom Excavating and Trucking, in the amount of $71,565.
• An emergency purchase of UPS units was approved. County Administrator Marsha McSherry said the units are necessary to support dispatch units, security system and other circuits in the courthouse.
• Commissioners accepted a proclamation presented by Launchpad Director Sherry Searles, proclaiming Kosciusko County is recognizing April 10-16 as Week of the Young Child. 
• Kosciusko County Dispatch Center Director Sarah Lancaster’s 2021 radio grant request was approved.
• The next regular meeting will be 9 a.m. April 27.
  

  From left, American Legion Post 49 Commander John Mort, Honor and Remember of Indiana LLC Director Don Finnegan and Kosciusko Commissioner President Bob Conley.