For years, the biggest problem West Virginia gun owners have faced at the Legislature has been a cadre of lying, deceitful politicians who tell their constituents they're pro-gun, give the "right" answers to candidate surveys, and then proceed to stab gun owners in the back by stifling the passage of good legislation and bill rationing (limiting not only gun rights but many other issue groups to one or two, often minuscule, bills each year.)

Today, the systematic betrayal West Virginia gun owners have received from our elected officials reached new heights. Today, Governor Joe Manchin vetoed both pro-gun bills that managed to pass the Legislature this year: HB 4521, the gun sales tax holiday bill, and SB 515, the "Anti-Bloomberg Bill."

 

Consistent with the constant back-stabbing West Virginians have suffered at the hands of our elected leaders, it was in a way appropriate that Governor Manchin chose today, Good Friday, to cast these vetoes. Governor Manchin has until April 7 to sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature.  He could have vetoed the bills yesterday. He could have vetoed them Monday. He could have vetoed them Tuesday. He could have vetoed them Wednesday.  Instead, he vetoed both of them today.

 

According to an AP wire story, Governor Manchin is claiming his veto of SB 515 was because the bill had a technical defect that could have rendered the bill unconstitutional. Unfortunately, that explanation of a veto has become a very common justification for vetoing a bill that I believe is being used excessively, in cases where it is not truly justified, and serves as a convenient excuse for vetoing a bill for other reasons without having to explain them.

Based upon the accumulation of his vetoes today along with his refusal to participate in WVCDL's gubernatorial candidate survey in 2008 (his campaign sent WVCDL a letter expressly declining to participate), and the State Police's opposition to repealing the requirement in our reciprocity law that a reciprocal state must be able to provide instantaneous verification of their licenses, WVCDL President Keith Morgan has declared Governor "Judas" Manchin to be among the back-stabbing, anti-gun politicians who have masqueraded for years as pro-gun but then betray us time and again.

 

WVCDL will soon be sending its 2010 legislative candidate survey to all candidates for the Senate and House of Delegates. Although we do not require complete agreement with out positions (and actually appreciate the honesty of those candidates and legislators who will level with us about where they do not agree with specific items on our legislative agenda), any candidate who will not answer the very specific questions we present cannot be trusted and do not merit the votes of gun owners.

 

Governor Manchin, who aspires to be a U.S. Senator (and likely will appoint himself to the Senate when Senator Byrd dies) has exposed himself for what he really is. When he eventually faces the voters of this state after appointing himself to the U.S. Senate, we need to not be fooled again and instead make sure that West Virginia does not elect a senator who will vote more often with Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Frank Lautenberg, and their fellow travelers, than with the people he represents.