The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence wants Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis’ teaching certification to be revoked.
The group started a campaign after Lewis and his comments on gun rights were brought into the national spotlight. A quote from Lewis highlighted on the Web page from his interview with News21 reads:
“As long as I’m the sheriff in this county, I will not allow the federal government to come in here and strip my citizens of their right to bear arms. I can tell you this, if they attempt to do that, it would be an all-out civil war, no question about it.”
Lewis said Tuesday the Second Amendment isn’t an issue that is brought up in the classroom. In classes, he teaches about apprehending and identifying criminals, he said. The only part of the Constitution that comes in is the Fourth Amendment, which relates to searches and seizures.
And it’s “ludicrous” for the coalition to think he isn’t going to enforce laws, Lewis said.
“They’re going to twist and turn this to suit their own special needs,” he said.
The campaign
The campaign to revoke Lewis’ teaching certification began Monday, and as of about 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, about 1,470 signatures had been collected via an online petition, said Ladd Everitt, director of communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, a Washington-based gun control group.
“When you employ violence against your government essentially to effect policy decisions, you are damaging the principle of political equality,” Everitt said.
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Everitt said the petition will be delivered to the Maryland Police Training Commission.
Everitt said the coalition has been following what it would consider insurrectionist behavior for several years. He noted how Lewis had backed up his comments: It wasn’t just the interview with Arizona-based News21, an initiative of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in which students participate as reporters.
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