Following are the responses I have received as of 5 p.m.
today – 10 days after the deaths of 17 students and teachers at the Parkland,
Florida, school:
U.S.
Senator Shelley Moore-Capito, R-WV
“As we grieve the loss of innocent life due to this senseless violence, we
extend our thoughts and prayers to
the family and friends of the victims and our gratitude to our police officers and first responders whose heroism
was critical in preventing further violence and providing life-saving medical
treatment.
“Acts of gun violence are deplorable
and the misuse of any weapon is intolerable and should be punished accordingly.
As your Senator, I support strong
criminal penalties for those who engage in gun violence, both to deter
future acts of violence and to punish those
individuals who use guns in criminal acts. I will continue working with my
colleagues on sensible solutions to
stop violence while maintaining protections
for law abiding gun owners. I also remain firmly committed to supporting our law enforcement personal
and first responders in order to ensure they have the resources necessary to
keep our communities and our schools safe.”
U.S.
Senator Joe Manchin, D-WV
“I have received your e-mail and look
forward to responding to you soon.”
U.S.
Representative David McKinley, R-WV:
“____________.” [No response at all.]
Great. So let’s recap:
The question I asked was “what
will you do” to prevent another mass shooting. Mrs. Capito said she will grieve for victims, extend thoughts and prayers, express gratitude for first responders, punish shooters after they shoot someone,
seek sensible solutions with her
colleagues, protect law abiding gun
owners and support law enforcement.
I saw no mention of any meaningful action, such as raising
the minimum age to buy certain types of guns, outlawing private ownership of military-style
assault weapons, expanding background checks, closing gun show loopholes,
increasing treatment for the mentally ill, authorizing police to confiscate
guns from disturbed individuals or even the NRA’s favorite – turning schools
into bunkers resembling maximum security prisons.
Mr. Manchin’s response was, basically, “I’ll get back to
you.” It mentioned no other action of any kind.
And David McKinley’s response was even worse, because there
wasn’t one. His office didn’t even have the courtesy to send a form letter full
of NRA talking points.
Now I’m sure you know that I wasn’t really expecting anything else from these three politicians
who are supposed to represent me and the rest of our state, although I did expect some thoughts and prayers
(thanks, Shelley) and some political argle bargle that uses way too many words
to say virtually nothing at all. However, I had to ask the question or I would never
have known for sure what I would get.
Well now I know…and I thought you might like to know, too.
After all, two of these three people must stand for re-election in November, so
as an educated, interested and engaged voter, I plan to keep asking them
questions from time to time until Election Day, and – you can trust me on this –
I’ll be keeping a record of what they say. You might even read about it here.
And while I'm at it, I urge all of you to do the same, regardless of where you live. One-third of the U.S. Senate and all of the House of Representatives are up for re-election this year. If you want to spark any kind of reaction out of these people, I suggest you keep up the calls and the letters and the emails to their offices and write letters to your local newspaper editors and go to town halls and find any other way you can keep these issues in front of your elected representatives and in front of voters, because the closer it gets to election time, the more the candidates will have to listen to us, or, hopefully, they can catch the first bus out of Washington on their way to their next job.
I keep saying that elections have consequences. After 2016, that has never been more clear.
I keep saying that elections have consequences. After 2016, that has never been more clear.
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