A Kentucky sheriff who refused to enforce any new gun laws that he deemed unconstitutional says that the Second Amendment is “like the Bible” because “you either believe it or you don’t.”

In a recent interview with The Lexington Herald-Leader, Jackson County Sheriff Denny Peyman said that he had a “moral obligation” to defy any new executive orders from President Barack Obama or laws passed by Congress if they restricted the Constitutional right to bear arms.

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“I swore an oath to the Constitution,” Peyman explained to Fox News host Greta Van Susteren on Monday. “And in the Constitution is the Second Amendment and that’s what this country is based upon. How can I rightfully in my own mind and in my heart come in and take guns away from people when that is their protection?”

Susteren asked the sheriff, who is a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), how gun laws should be changed to prevent another mass shooting like the one that killed 20 children in Newtown, Connecticut.

“If you take out part — it’s kind of like the Bible — either you believe it or you don’t believe it,” he insisted. “The Constitution, either you believe it or you don’t. Either you live by it or you don’t.”

“If the people in the theater [in Aurora, Colorado], if there had been somebody in there or several people in there with a firearm, how many people would have got shot? In the school, how many people would have got shot?”

Susteren pressed Peyman on what he would do “put the lid on some of these incidents” if he were president.

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“The Secondment Amendment, the way it was designed was to protect the people,” he replied. “In protection, it’s just like if I’m a bad guy and I’m going to go kick a door but I know that the guy behind that door has a gun, and I go to this other door where I know a guy doesn’t have a gun, that’s the door I’m going to kick.”

“You’re still going to have incidences, you’re still going to have violence. You’re not going to be able to curb that, but the innocent people are going to be able to protect themselves.”

Watch this video from Fox News’ On the Record, broadcast Jan. 14, 2013.

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