Brady Campaign wants Oregon sheriff with 'extremist' views to resign

Saying that Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin holds "extremist" views on gun control, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is calling for his resignation.

As sheriff, Hanlin is leading the investigation into last week's deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, which left nine people and the gunman dead. In 2013, he wrote a letter to Vice President Joe Biden saying: "Gun control is NOT the answer to preventing heinous crimes like school shootings.... I will refuse to participate in, nor tolerate enforcement actions against citizens that are deemed unconstitutional." Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign, said in a statement that "in pledging not to enforce the new law, John Hanlin has clearly demonstrated that his political ideology trumps his responsibility to protect his community."

Hanlin also posted on his personal Facebook page a link to a video called "Sandy Hook Shooting — Fully Exposed," which suggested that the Sept. 11 attacks and the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 26 people in Newtown, Connecticut, were staged by the government in order to take guns away from people. The now-deleted post was captioned: "This makes me wonder who we can trust anymore." On Friday, Hanlin said that he now thinks Sandy Hook was not a conspiracy, the BBC reports, and he told The Oregonian that his "focus right now is on getting this investigation completed and taking care of the victims and the victims' families. Now is not an appropriate time to have those conversations."

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Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) noted Monday that Hanlin "is an elected official accountable to the voters of Douglas County," adding through a spokeswoman: "The evaluation of his performance, past and present, is up to them."