West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has gotten a lot of goodwill from gun owners over the last couple of years. We hadn’t forgiven him for Manchin-Toomey, necessarily, but he was helping to stop a lot of bad legislation from seeing the light of day.

That made it easier to, if not forgive him, then forget about his gun control bill.

Yet if there were any doubt about Manchin really not being pro-Second Amendment, his latest comments should quell them forever.

“We have to do something. And gun owners are standing up. You take polls around the country, in my state, too — law-abiding gun owners want something to be done,” Manchin told Tapper. “They don’t want people who should never have a gun,or is mentally incapacitated or not stable to be able to access anything they want.”

Manchin also said that the proposed legislation — which has the backing of 10 Senate Republicans, the minimum needed to overcome a filibuster — is based on “something that’s sensible and reasonable,” citing the principles of prevention and intervention.

“We have got to take what we have got as a positive and work off of this. But this should not — this piece of legislation, as drafted, should not be threatening to any law-abiding citizen in the United States of America, not one. And no law-abiding gun owner should be offended by this,” Machin told Tapper.

Well, I am.

First, I’m offended by the notion of treating people who are over the age of 18 but under 21-year-old as if they’re second-class citizens, for one thing.

I’m also offended by this idea that states should be encouraged to pass red flag laws.

I’m sure as hell offended by the concept of a “boyfriend loophole,” which

Now, understand that I’m not impacted by any of these measures, nor is anyone in my family as of right now. I’m also pretty sure that the states that wanted red flag laws already have them, so I don’t see that as having any kind of impact at all.

Yet I also know there are people who will be impacted. They’ll have their Second Amendment rights either delayed or denied, both of which are a huge problem for me. So yeah, I’m offended by them.

Manchin can try and claim otherwise, but we’ve taken issue with every one of these measures and debunked the arguments in favor of them over and over again. For him to sit there and pretend we have no right to be upset is infuriating.

Further, note his phrasing. He said, “no law-abiding gun owner should be offended by this.” In other words, the implication becomes that if you are offended, maybe you’re not a law-abiding gun owner.

Well, I am and I’m offended.

I value not just my rights, but the rights of others. I don’t want to see some 19-year-old unable to buy a firearm because of something stupid they did when they were 14.  I don’t want to see someone lose their gun rights because the girl they went on one date with claimed he assaulted her.

I find that offensive, and Manchin will need to get used to that idea.