The Polk County Commission on Tuesday reversed course from its Friday meeting and approved a resolution affirming its support for gun rights, including language declaring the county a sanctuary.

BARTOW — Polk County is a Second Amendment sanctuary.

The Polk County Commission on Tuesday reversed course from its Friday meeting and approved a resolution affirming its support for gun rights, including language declaring the county a sanctuary.

The vote came after 12 people spoke out in favor of the sanctuary measure. Several commissioners also indicated they received phone calls and emails from gun-rights supporters over the weekend.

Although the commission could not take an official vote during its Friday workshop, four commissioners clearly indicated they had trouble with the sanctuary language while maintaining they supported Second Amendment rights. Only Commissioner John Hall supported the entire resolution, including the language declaring Polk a Second Amendment sanctuary.

That changed Tuesday as the commission initially voted 4-1 to approve the sanctuary resolution with Commissioner George Lindsey opposing it. Later, Lindsey asked for a reconsideration of the resolution and switched his vote to affirm the commission was unanimous in supporting the Second Amendment, he said.

“I don't want this to be a divisive issue,” Lindsey said.

Commission Chairman Bill Braswell said he changed his mind because he hadn't realized the word “sanctuary” was the label adopted by a Second Amendment movement.

“The word 'sanctuary' to some of us wouldn't be our first choice,” he said. “When I hear 'sanctuary,' I think of 'sanctuary city,' and that's bad.”

Braswell was referring to the sanctuary city movement asking local officials not to support some of President Donald Trump's harsh immigration and deportation policies.

Commissioner Rick Wilson agreed he reacted against the word because of its association with immigration policies.

“I don't like the word. I wish we could change it,” he said.

Yet Wilson and the other three commissioners declined to support Lindsey's proposal to substitute “pro-Second-Amendment county” for “Second Amendment sanctuary.”

Before the first vote on the resolution, Lindsey said he opposed including the sanctuary language because one historical definition of the word is “immunity from the law.”

“That's the part that bothers me,” he said. “I can't do that if there's an implied immunity from the law.”

Lindsey pointed out he supports the Second Amendment as a life member of the National Rifle Association, a handgun owner and holder of a state concealed weapons permit. But immunity from the law “is not what we stand for,” he said.

Several of the resolution supporters appeared motivated by the so-called “red flag” law passed by the Florida Legislature following the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

That law allows local law enforcement to seek a temporary court order, called a “risk protection order,” to seize firearms from persons it believes might use them against themselves or the community. Law enforcement can get an emergency order to seize weapons immediately followed by a final order at a court hearing within 14 days.

The law was passed because the Parkland shooter and many other perpetrators of mass shootings had shown behavioral signs of violence before the incidents.

“Polk County has a Second Amendment problem,” said Royal Brown III of Winter Haven, president of Winter Haven 912 Project, a gun rights group. “We lead the state in the use of the unconstitutional risk protection order, or RPO, which allows an ex parte seizure of firearms and ammunition without prior notification, without the right to be represented by a public defender and without due process based on a judge's fear of what might happen in the future. This also violates the legal precedent of being innocent until proven guilty.”

Brown cited information from the Polk County Clerk of Courts office, which The Ledger also obtained.

The statistics show Polk did lead the state in seeking risk protection orders between March 2018 and October.

Polk sought 501 orders during that time followed by Pinellas County with 429 cases and Broward County with 393 orders sought. Only five other counties had more than 100 risk protection order cases during that time, and the state total was 2,933 cases.

The Clerk of Courts also reported a total of 525 risk protection cases filed in Polk from March 2018 through Nov. 20 with no additional state data.

Among those Polk cases, 15 petitions were denied an emergency order, or 3%. Among the 510 emergency protection orders granted, the court denied a final order in 49 cases, or 10%.

“We ask you to declare Polk County a Second Amendment sanctuary county and to be aware of the problems with the risk protection order, including conducting oversight of the RPO process until such time as it is challenged in the courts and declared unconstitutional or changed or deleted from law by the Florida Legislature,” Brown said.

Other speakers made more general arguments that the sanctuary language was needed to “send a message” to the Legislature and Congress on passing further gun restrictions. Several speakers warned of a looming socialist or communist threat to take away Second Amendment rights gradually.

“Florida came within 1% of becoming a socialist state,” said Glynda White, a Winter Haven 912 member, referring to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' narrow victory margin over Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum.

“The gun grabbers are coming,” said Danny Krueger of Lake Wales.

Bob Grimes of Lakeland compared the gradual diminution of gun rights to livestock being herded into a corral.

“What happens to sheep or cattle when they're herded into a corral? They're headed to slaughter,” he said.

After the meeting, Braswell told The Ledger the resolution was a symbolic affirmation of the Second Amendment because state law prohibits local government from passing any legislation dealing with firearms.

For that reason, he doesn't anticipate the commission acting on any gun-related legislation, Braswell said.

“I don't think we have any authority there,” he said. “This today was a symbolic proclamation.”

Kevin Bouffard can be reached at kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or at 863-802-7591.