Effingham County, Illinois, officially declared itself a “sanctuary county” for gun owners on Monday.

The “sanctuary” status means the county will refuse enforcement of any new state law which might “unconstitutionally restrict the Second Amendment.”

Fox News Insider reports the county board passed the “sanctuary county” resolution by a vote of eight to one on Monday.

County board member David Campbell indicated the vote was part of fighting against the constant encroachment on the Second Amendment. He said, “[We] decided it’s time for someone to take a hard stand.”

Effingham County State’s Attorney Bryan Kibler explained that the idea came from watching how the left declares sanctuary areas throughout the county as it relates to immigration. He said, “So we thought … why don’t we just make this a sanctuary county like they would for undocumented immigrants. So we did flip the script on it.”

The impetus for the vote was a Deerfield, Illinois, decision not simply to bar residents from “assault weapon” ownership but to empower the police chief to confiscate such weapons once the ban goes into effect.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.