In an event “billed as an economic roundtable” in West Virginia, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) defended his push for more gun control and made it clear he is going to “continue looking for a way to expand gun-sale background checks.”
The event was held in a library in Raleigh County, which, like West Virginia itself, was once a Democrat stronghold but is now “GOP territory.”
As the National Journal reports, constituents are outraged over Manchin’s attacks on gun shows and private gun sales. Because of this, Manchin’s endless claims that he is “not a ‘Washington Democrat'” increasingly fall on deaf ears.
It is no surprise that constituents like Baptist minister Glenn Bragg talk more and more of how they used to support Manchin until the Senator did reversed his views and began “pushing for gun control.” Bragg says Manchin wants “to appease those around him” more than “the people his [is] representing.”
The problem for West Virginians is that those around Manchin include gun grabbers like Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Harry Reid (D-NV), and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Manchin responds to the concerns of his constituents with the same tired lines he has been espousing for years: “There’s enough people in the gun movement that know I will protect your Second Amendment rights.”
This is the same tact he took after he “helped kill a proposal to defund Planned Parenthood” in 2011. To critics of that move he said, “There’s enough people in the pro-life movement that know I’m pro-life.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.
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