Fulton County, N.Y. is home to a strong hunting and fishing tradition. Guns are everywhere, but life isn’t easy.

Temperatures are often well below zero, and snow piles drift up so high against your home that you have to go to the second floor to be able to look outside a window. Jobs are scarce since the leather industry exited a few decades ago. Taxes are high, and it seems the government solution to the unemployment problem is to move people to public assistance.

It is the perfect example of a bad state government imposing its will on a people that don’t need advice from Albany politicians that have never set foot into the county. The people there want to be able to care for themselves.

As a kid, the only time in 10 years I was ever stopped by the police for carrying a gun through Fulton County was when I was walking home from a hunt with my Ithaca Model 37. The officer pulled over and asked if I was coming or going to hunt. When I told him I was walking home he responded with, “Oh, OK, I get off in 30 minutes and was just wondering if you wanted to go out.”

If you want to meet people upset with the government, you would do well to stop by Fulton County.

Enter Sheriff Thomas Lorey. Lorey has been a lawman in the county in one form or other for nearly 45 years. Before becoming a police officer he was a Navy man. Somewhere in-between he became an “Oath Keeper.” Oath Keepers are former military and law enforcement/first responders who still pledge to, “Defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Lorey is intending to uphold his oath against those Second Amendment hating politicians in the state capitol.

In a video posted on Friday, this is how Lorey opened his remarks to a small group of concerned citizens, “We’re starting this fight, this fight is going to be a long and difficult fight. The government and Andrew Cuomo are dragging us into a pit. These are the folks (present meeting attendees) that are going to drag us out of the pit because I think this war is going to last that long.”

“One of the things I want to talk about is the renewal of pistol permits,” the sheriff continues. “There is a lot of scuttlebutt going around about it and I want to set the record straight. Fulton County is one of the pilot counties…they are going to send out 500 invitations to my county and that’s all they are is invitations. The invitation is going to ask you if you would like to renew early…I’m asking everyone that gets those invitations to throw them in the garbage because that is where they belong.”

New York has two types of handgun permits. One type is a permit to carry, which is rarely approved. The second is a permit to possess a handgun. Regarding the permit to possess a handgun, the sheriff is telling his audience to allow their permit paperwork to expire.

“Don’t do it, let’s have everybody’s permit expire the same day and let them see what they are going to do with it,” he said.

This is a David vs. Goliath fight for gun rights. Fulton County is poised to defy a governor that has forced unreasonable gun restrictions on law-abiding citizens – in this case paying the state for the right to keep your handgun. Fortunately, there is one sheriff who is not afraid to make a stand for the right to keep and bear arms.

Hats off to Lorey. A nation of gun owners applauds you.

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