1% of Legislature’s bills will make state virtual armed camp

These days the 1% of anything should get your attention.
Take for example the 1% of the richest people on the planet who own more than half the world’s wealth.
Or that little 1% of a chemical cocktail used in fracking operations. It only equals about 25,000 gallons of the 3 million gallons of water used in many wells.
And then there’s that 1% of bills to expand “gun rights” introduced in the Legislature of the 1,471 filed as of Thursday. By our count, there were about 20 actual bills and several resolutions in committee across the Legislature’s chambers.
They range from the Campus Self Defense Act (HB 2519) to the far more benign SB 264 which provides for a tax credit for completing a firearms safety course.
Most of these bills look to be intent on expanding the range where firearms are allowed while some are intent on preempting control of firearms.
For instance, bills in the House (HB 2031 and HB 4093) and Senate (SB 483) aim to eliminate the restrictions on carrying firearms on the state Capitol complex’s grounds.
Meanwhile, legislators who crow about furthering local control when it suits their agenda apparently take exception to gun controls by municipalities, airport authorities, college campuses and even schools.
This rash of bills include SB 96 pertaining to municipalities, SB 477 to curb county airport authorities’ regulations and SB 482, which eliminates the permit requirement for storing a concealed handgun in a vehicle on school property.
Two other House bills (HB 2519 and HB 2032) insist on permitting carrying concealed weapons on a state campus of higher education.
Both bills specify the need for a license to carry a concealed weapon on campuses. The most striking difference here is HB 2519 is 44 pages and HB 2032 is three pages.
The most disconcerting of all these bills were four that all seem to be competing to make federal regulations of firearms unenforceable in West Virginia.
HB 2170 makes it a felony to even attempt to enforce statutes concerning firearms “that violate the state and federal constitutions.”
Another, HB 2143, exempts any firearm, sold and maintained in our state, providing it was manufactured here with “Made in West Virginia” stamped on it.
Still another, HB 4139, specifies federal law shall not apply to semiautomatic firearms or limits to magazine sizes of a firearm. Finally, HB 4098 would make us a Second Amendment sanctuary state that prohibits enforcement of laws that “unlawfully” abridge that amendment.
That is, laws that in someone’s mind — aside from a court, lawmaker, etc. — abridges the Second Amendment.
The aim of this 1% looks to be expediting the proliferation of firearms in public venues.
We reject these bills because they do nothing to curb gun violence. Indeed, they would only trigger more of it.