After the West Virginia Senate Judiciary committee approved a bill that would open the door to the state sale of machine guns to lawful residents last week, the legislation was suddenly left in limbo ahead of a legislative deadline.
SB 1071 should have been transmitted to the Senate floor for a procedural move to send it to the Senate Finance committee and then onto the Senate floor (if the committee approved), but instead the bill never officially left the Judiciary committee, and Judiciary Chair Tom Willis was mum about what was going on. SB 1071 ended up dying on the vine, for this session anyway, because it didn't pass out of the Senate before the legislature's crossover deadline.
Now we have an explanation about what happened, and 2A advocates aren't going to be happy with it. West Virginia Senate President Randy Smith says he was the one who made sure the bill wasn't going anywhere this session.
The bill was introduced February 23 and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee and then to the Senate Finance Committee. Smith said it was submitted on the last possible day for Senate bills and described it as “a poorly drafted piece of legislation” provided by Gun Owners of America, which he called an out-of-state group that had not previously been active in the West Virginia Legislature.
Smith said that after consulting several attorneys, along with the National Rifle Association and the West Virginia Citizens Defense League, he was “convinced this bill as it was submitted to us would be unable to pass the House of Delegates and would face numerous legal challenges to its implementation upon passage.”
Now, I have no idea if WVCDL and NRA were consulted or what they had to say about SB 1071 (note that Smith doesn't claim that either group opposed it), but the rest of his excuse doesn't sit well with me. It's not the Senate's job to only approve bills that can pass the House as well. Put the bill up for a vote in the Senate and let the chips fall where they may. If the House rejected it, so be it. And if the House approved it and Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed it into law, let the legal challenges come.
Anti-gun politicians certainly don't have any problem with adopting legislation that they know will lead to litigation. So why should pro-Second Amendment lawmakers be gun shy about that possibility? And if he didn't think the House would pass the bill, as he said, then why was he concerned about any legal challenges to begin with?
Smith also criticized the behavior of some supporters of the bill, saying he has seen senators “harassed and threatened,” calls for people to go to lawmakers’ homes, and accusations of “treason” against the Senate. He said Gun Owners of America is welcome to bring the legislation back next year but urged the group to submit it earlier so the Senate can give it what he called a full, thorough and fair review.
I don't condone any harassment or threats to lawmakers, but might I suggest that tempers wouldn't have been so high if Smith had at least been open and transparent about what he was doing with and to SB 1071?
Okay, actually maybe that wouldn't have calmed things down... because what Smith did essentially circumvented the legislative process and allowed him to issue a veto of the bill based on his position as Senate President.
SB 1071 may very well have some problems from a legal perspective, but even if that's the case it shouldn't have prevented the bill from moving forward. Unlike dubious gun control bills that are still approved despite concerns about being struck down by the courts because they infringe on our rights, SB 1071 would have erred on the side of individual freedom and our Second Amendment rights... if, in fact, it erred at all.
One final note: Smith says GOA should submit the bill earlier next session so the Senate can have a "full, thorough, and fair review." Doesn't that mean that Smith's own review of the bill wasn't full, thorough, or fair? He had time to take a look, get outside opinions, and decide to scuttle the bill. If that wasn't full, thorough, or fair then he should have let the bill proceed and allow the House to conduct that thorough review. If, on the other hand, he believes his own investigation into SB 1071 was full, thorough, and fair, then his Senate colleagues all had the same opportunity to conduct their own review of the legislation.
I don't agree with Sen. Smith's decision to kill the bill, but I'm also bothered by how he's attempting to justify his actions after the fact. West Virginia is still Best Virginia as far as gun laws go, but sadly we've seen contempt for the voters coming from legislative leaders in both Virginia and West Virginia this session.
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