MORGANTOWN – Sen. Shelley Moore Capito talked with members of the West Virginia press today, voicing her support for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – the response to the Uvalde school shooting – and her opposition to President Biden’s proposed federal gas tax holiday.
Capito was one of 15 Republicans to join with all 50 Democrats, including Sen. Joe Manchin, to vote to overcome the filibuster and advance the gun safety measure for floor consideration and passage.
“It’s very important for the American people to see us do something,” Capito said. It doesn’t harm Second Amendment rights and represents a commonsense compromise on protecting the public.
Negotiations on the bill were open and collaborative, she said. It does not create red flag laws opposed by many West Virginians and gun advocates across the country. “We’re not going to have red flag laws in West Virginia.”
It does address, among other important issues, mental health, she said.
Asked why now is different from other mass shootings in terms of action, Capito said, “The cumulative effect of more than one mass shooting is certain weighing heavy on the American public and on us.”
Also, previous proposals coming from the left were dramatic and drastic and would not garner support. But it’s apparent that there are gaps – in school safety, mental health, background checks, suicide prevention. There has been outcry from Second Amendment lovers to do something.
The bill includes several provisions: support for state crisis intervention orders where guns are kept form those determined by a court to be dangerous, and to support drug courts and mental health courts and ensure due process; protections for domestic violence victims; crackdowns on gun dealers who evade federal licensing requirements, ensuring dealers conduct proper checks and keep proper records; enhanced review for sales to gun buyers under 21; penalties for “straw purchasing,”; and a number of school safety and mental measures for children and families.
In a Senate floor speech on the bill, Manchin said some will say its not enough, some that it’s too much and is “the camel’s nose under the tent” to take guns away.
He said he raised in a gun culture in Farmington and taught “gun sense”: safety first; never sell your gun to a stranger; never loan it to someone who’s not responsible.
“Every time there’s a horrific tragedy we are all willing to start talking about, ‘We’ve got to do something,’” he said. His Manchin-Toomey bill requiring background checks and gun dealer responsibility, introduced after Sandy Hook failed.
On this bill, “We need to start somewhere. This is a start.” They have to be able to say what they’re doing today would have prevented Uvalde.
“If we do anything, it has to be toward the safety of children. This is a piece of legislation that will do an awful lot of good and it’s something we can build off of. … It’s a child protection bill, as far as I’m concerned.”
The Dominion Post reported on Thursday on Capito’s and Manchin’s opposition to a gas tax holiday. Capito expanded on that in answer to questions from The Dominion Post and another reporter.
“I absolutely think the gas tax holiday is a gimmick,” she said. The money is needed for the federal highway fund and the holiday will make no measurable difference in the gas price.
“His rhetoric has been all over the place on this,” she said of Biden. “West Virginians are paying the price.”
Biden said that the money could come from other sources and won’t hurt federal highway funds, and the the holiday would have more impact if states join in.
Capito said that would put a lot of pressure on most states – they need their state taxes for their roads and for federal funding matches. “When is that going to happen?”
And she doesn’t know what other funding sources Biden is talking about, she said.
For the president to say spending more federal money to afford him a federal gas tax holiday is ludicrous.
Economists agree that the trillions of American Rescue Plan dollars has played a role in our current inflation. I think he’s just searching for some political solution here.”
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
