West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin may have delivered one of the biggest whoppers of the 2020 election season on Sunday night, telling voters during a virtual town hall that their right to keep and bear arms isn’t under threat if Democrats gain the White House and a majority in Congress on Election Day.

Earlier this year there was speculation that Manchin might end up endorsing Donald Trump’s re-election, but instead the West Virginia Democrat has embraced the Biden/Harris campaign and is trying to provide cover for the Democratic ticket in West Virginia, where the Second Amendment is one of the top election issues for voters. West Virginia is a stronghold for the right to keep and bear arms, with lawmakers adopting permitless carry in the state back in 2016.

On Sunday evening, Manchin could have spoken honestly about what a Biden/Harris administration would mean for gun owners in the Mountaineer State, but instead he decided to claim that Democratic ticket poses no threat at all to the Second Amendment.

“The second amendment right is not in jeopardy whatsoever. People have a right to own – to own firearms,” said Sen. Manchin.

The Senator was answering a question about any risks that policymakers would take away firearms from rural West Virginians.

“We just don’t need people who are, basically, taking it to the extreme,” said Sen. Manchin.

Unfortunately, Machin is backing the candidates who are “taking it to the extreme.” The Biden/Harris campaign is definitely taking some extreme positions when it comes to our right to keep and bear arms, and Machin’s lies about the Second Amendment stakes in the election don’t serve him or his constituents well.

Under the Biden/Harris gun control proposals, West Virginians who own semi-automatic firearms deemed to be “assault weapons” would be required to hand them over to the federal government or else pay $200 per firearm and magazine in order to maintain possession of their banned guns.

Biden also wants to undo the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act and allow junk lawsuits against firearm manufacturers, allowing gun control groups like Everytown for Gun Safety and Giffords to bankrupt the industry and make it nearly impossible for West Virginians (and the rest of us) to exercise our Second Amendment rights.

Rural West Virginians wouldn’t be allowed to purchase ammunition online under the Biden/Harris plan, which would leave many of them to drive hours in order to try to pick up a box of ammo, and Biden also wants to give federal grants to states like West Virginia in order for them to impose Massachusetts-style gun licensing laws on all current and would-be gun owners.

If Joe Manchin doesn’t believe that the Biden/Harris gun control agenda poses a threat to the Second Amendment rights of his constituents, he must not think the Second Amendment offers much protection for their right to keep and bear arms in the first place. Personally, I suspect that Manchin knows all too well that the anti-gun policies of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners; he just can’t bring himself to acknowledge it publicly because it would hurt the cause. For Manchin, electing Joe Biden is the number one priority, not being honest with his constituents.