Brandon Bell’s movement to make Carbon County municipalities a Second Amendment sanctuary drew plenty of debate Thursday night at a Jim Thorpe Borough workshop.

The Penn Forest Township resident presented the idea to council last month, advocating for it to adopt an ordinance that rejects the enforcement of state or federal gun laws perceived to violate the Second Amendment.

To date, Bowmanstown and Palmerton boroughs have adopted resolutions declaring themselves sanctuaries.

Marissa Strohlein, of Jim Thorpe, urged council not to take action Thursday.

“This is not going to protect you from bad gun laws,” Strohlein said. “What it will do is put a big red flag up for the federal government that we are buying into propaganda that is not meant to help us. If you really want to see gun rights protected, we need to talk to the young people who are buying into stuff that is absolutely insane.”

Mayor Michael Sofranko said he sees it as a resolution that supports Second Amendment rights.

“Everybody in the borough deserves to know they have the right to own a gun to defend their family,” Sofranko said. “I wouldn’t support anything that infringes upon people’s race, nationality, freedom of speech or sexual preferences. But this is a Second Amendment right given to you by the U.S. Constitution. It isn’t the borough writing a law that supersedes anything.”

Bell has said publicly that he believes the sanctuary movement is misunderstood.

“I don’t think a lot of people truly understand what this does and what it doesn’t do,” Bell said. “This doesn’t make things a free-for-all and turn Carbon County into the Wild West. If you go out and break a law using a gun, you will be prosecuted. This doesn’t protect you from that, this protects you from unconstitutional laws.”

Strohlein said she is not against gun rights, but thinks the borough would be opening itself up to liability if it goes with the sanctuary movement.

“If you want to fight for gun rights, do so in a sane, logical and legal fashion,” she said. “We can’t decide to ignore state law.”

Thursday was not an action meeting for Jim Thorpe, meaning they would not vote on any ordinance or resolution. Councilman Mike Yeastedt suggested the governing body get more input from its solicitor, Jim Nanovic, before deciding how to move forward.

“I think there are numerous things in here that have to be resolved by the solicitor,” Yeastedt said. “I don’t think it’s completely clear on what our liability would be, even with a resolution instead of an ordinance. There is a lot of interpretation in the paperwork we were given that I think needs reviewed.”

Council meets for a voting session on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Memorial Hall.