(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) – The town council in Burrillville, R.I. unanimously passed a resolution this week declaring itself a “sanctuary town” for gun owners.

According to the Providence Journal, the resolution says the town will support the local police department’s right to “exercise sound discretion when enforcing laws impacting the rights of citizens under the Second Amendment.”

And it says Burrillville will not comply with unfunded mandates that might require the seizure and/or storage of guns or ammunition from otherwise law-abiding citizens.

The resolution’s sponsor, Donald A. Fox, told the town council (the meetings are videotaped) that he introduced the resolution for two primary reasons:

“The first is rooted in history," Councilman Fox said. "We’re a state that’s had one-party rule for the better part of 85 years. That rule has resulted quite often in legislation and laws that are passed…that really do not do the taxpayers of the state and the residents of the state any good.”

Fox said taxpayers have become “all too accustomed” to having unfunded mandates pushed on them, often resulting in higher property taxes.

The second reason for the resolution, Fox said, is rooted in the U.S. Constitution:

“For far too long in R.I., as we’ve seen with other creep of legislation – you have progressive creep – when every year we have to put on our yellow T-shirts and go down to the State House and fight against the governor and often against the progressive wing in that building to maintain our constitutional rights. And I for one, am tired. And I believe now is the time to begin pushing back.”

Fox said he travels all over the world: “I’ve done business in countries where one of the primary goals of the government, their first goal, is to disarm the population," he said. "Communist China, the former Soviet Union, current day Russia, Turkmenistan, Pakistan -- I’ve done business in a lot of them, I’ve traveled to them, I’ve seen first-hand what a government will do to disarm its population.”

Fox said he believes the sanctuary resolution “will draw a line in the sand and tell Providence not only are we going to defend our constitutional rights, but we are tired of unfunded mandates and we’re going to begin to fight back.”

The “sanctuary” idea comes from those cities and towns across the United States where police are forbidden to cooperate with immigration officials seeking to deport illegal aliens.

And just as big-city liberals flout federal immigration law, Fox told the Journal, “I’m taking the sanctuary city status that’s been used by progressives and liberals around this country” to “[thumb] our nose at the federal government” and the anti-gun movement.

Rhode Island has strict gun control laws and another package of gun control bills, including a ban on “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines, is now working its way through the state legislature.