PA Bill Number: HB1661
Title: Further providing for schedules of controlled substances; and providing for secure storage of xylazine.
Description: Further providing for schedules of controlled substances; and providing for secure storage of xylazine. ...
Last Action: Act No. 17 of 2024
Last Action Date: May 15, 2024
Manchin, Capito discuss gun control, drugs at town hall :: 08/10/2016
ROCKET CENTER, W.Va. — Gun control laws, drugs and job creation were some of the issues discussed during a town hall meeting with Sens. Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) held Monday with employees of Orbital ATK.
Randy Ridenour, director of tank ammo deposit programs at the Allegany Ballistics Laboratory, asked if stricter gun control legislation would be approved this year in light of shootings in Dallas and Orlando.
“Not at all,” Manchin said. “I was the lead on Manchin-Toomey and it was basically background checks — it had nothing to do with gun control,” he said, referring to legislation he crafted with Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania that would have required background checks for all gun sales.
“I was not in the Senate when Manchin-Toomey came but I voiced my opposition to it because there is a real concern about Second Amendment rights and some of the extenuating directions that this bill could have gone,” Capito said. “So, that’s why you saw the opposition.”
Omar Mateen, the Orlando nightclub shooter who killed 49 people, was on a terror watch list, Capito said.
“One of the things we tried to move through ... was how to get guns out of the hands (of people) like the shooter in Orlando,” said Capito. “He fell off the terror list and he was still able to get the weapons that he used in that horrible attack.”
Capito suggested legislation that would ban people who were on a no-fly list from obtaining a weapon.
“We couldn’t quite find the language. I’m not sure how hard we really did try, but we did try to find the language on that,” said Capito. “Each bill got 45 (votes), or something like that — never quite enough to get us over the hump.”
Capito said she didn’t expect to see anything passed by the end of the year.
Gun control should be governed by common sense, Manchin said.
“We don’t sell guns to strangers, don’t sell them to criminals, we don’t sell them to idiots and we don’t even give them to family members who aren’t responsible,” he said.
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Manchin also addressed recent legislation that passed in West Virginia that allows people to carry guns without a permit.
“Now you have every policeman in the United States saying, ‘Please don’t pass this legislation because now we are walking into an ambush,’” Manchin said. “Before, we always knew who we were chasing — the bad guy — but we knew most of the people didn’t have a gun concealed, and if they did, they were responsible. We don’t know that anymore. So I’m for responsible gun control.”
One person in the audience speculated that unemployment was leading to an increase in the drug problem.
“The thing I am most ashamed of in my state is they have the lowest percentage of working adults,” said Manchin. “There is not one of you in this room that doesn’t have someone in your immediate family, extended family or close friend that hasn’t been affected with drugs. It is of epidemic proportions and it’s a silent killer.”
There aren’t enough treatment centers in the state, Manchin said.
“We have got to do something,” he said. “My family is affected — every family is affected. We are not immune from this.
“Don’t you worry about another country invading us with more military might — that will never happen. They don’t have to. They are going to sit back and watch you all destroy yourselves in America by being over-addicted and basically undereducated where you can’t compete at a world level to be a superpower.”
Capito noted that she worked on successful legislation that encourages doctors to partially fill a prescription for pain medications. She also suggested continuing drug take-back programs.
Manchin also spoke about jobs created at ATK, an aerospace manufacturer and defense industry company.
“I’m so proud of what you are doing here — 250 more jobs coming,” said Manchin. “I hope your families and I hope everybody in your community knows the patriotic duty of what you are doing here. No one is going to out-gun us, they aren’t going to out-rocket us. ... We have the best and by far the most dedicated military in the world.”
