By: Robert Davis

As the California state government slowly strips away the rights of law-abiding gun owners, the city council in the tiny desert town of Needles voted unanimously to declare itself a “Second Amendment Sanctuary” city.

“They want to pick and choose what they follow,” Tim Teral, city councilman and a sponsor of the initiative, told Fox News. “It’s ‘We’re going to shield this person, but we’re going to go after that person.’ And in our opinion, they have violated the Second Amendment of the Constitution in many ways.”

Needles is home to just over 5,000 people, but animosity runs deep towards the state government, which recently added two laws to its books requiring gun owners to undergo a background check before purchasing ammunition and barring visitors from brining ammunition into the state.

Residents of Needles typically buy their ammunition across the Arizona border because the closest gun shop to the town is more than 100 miles away. Under California law, any Needles gun owner who does this is committing a felony.

“We’re not crazy,” City Manager Rick Daniels told KUSI News San Diego. “We’re not proposing that everyone have a gun on their hip or open carry or anything like that.”

California currently doesn’t allow open carry in counties that have more than 200,000 residents. Needles isn’t asking the state to reconsider its stance on open or constitutional carry, but has asked the state to reconsider its recently enacted ammunition law. Unfortunately for Needles lawmakers, the ammo law has strong support from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsome, who said the law would save lives and help authorities discover unregistered firearms in the state.

Under Newsome’s leadership, California has also restricted gun owners from owning so-called “high-capacity” magazines, a ruling that is currently being appealed in the Ninth Circuit.

Prior to Newsome taking office, California’s state legislature passed several gun control bills that raised the legal age to purchase a weapon to 21 and required potential concealed carry permit holders to undergo an eight-hour class with a “live-fire” exercise before they earn their permit.

Robert Davis is a general assignment reporter for Gunpowder Magazine. You can contact him with tips or comments at RobertDavis0414 (at) gmail.com.