Charleston Mayor Danny Jones says state legislators ought to be focusing on protecting the waters of West Virginia, but instead are focused on guns, gays and abortion.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou started out talking about abortion,\u201d Jones told Hoppy Kercheval, who was hosting his Metronews Talkline radio program from the state capitol building in Charleston. \u201cThen we went to guns. The Democrats are playing gotcha with the Attorney General. You had this young man talking about tobacco. Gay rights made it in there a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know that since we had the big chemical spill in the Elk River, we\u2019ve had two more spills? And I wonder — \u00a0how many people up there know that?\u201d Jones asked.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the show, Kercheval had on Senate President Jeff Kessler (D), who was talking about legislation SB 317 that would strip Charleston gun restrictions, including a prohibition on purchasing more than one gun a month and a three day waiting period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m concerned about that, but I wrote it off a long time ago,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI know they are going to do that. I predicted that at the end of last session. That\u2019s not what I\u2019m worried about. I\u2019m worried about our parks and our swimming pools and our riverfront park and the city property.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does SB 317 say now about concealed carry?\u201d Kercheval asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn \u00a0cities, you cannot have laws against concealed carry,\u201d Kercheval asked. \u201cWe can only cover that in our own buildings. We think we have that covered. We are not sure. We raised the question about the ballpark. This local ballpark we have — will they be able to carry them into Appalachian Power Park? That\u2019s owned by the city, but it\u2019s an open park. It\u2019s an open field. Will they be able to preclude them there? That\u2019s what they are into right now, that\u2019s what they are arguing about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe National Rifle Association says they ought to be able to carry guns anywhere they want to carry them. Our position obviously is counter to that. And in the final analysis, they are are going to do what the NRA tells them to do. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s what is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d like to have (restrictions) on our property. We want zoning rights over where they can put pawn shops, which are gun stores.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the point is Hoppy, is that we had the biggest chemical spill, which may be the worst environmental disaster in this century and they haven\u2019t passed an environmental bill up there since 1996,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThere is nobody protecting the citizens here. Their whole direction is completely wrong — guns, abortion, gays. It\u2019s the same old stuff. The number one resource in West Virginia is not coal or gas, it\u2019s water. The whole session should have been focused on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou sound aggravated,\u201d Kercheval said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot really,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI\u2019m not really aggravated. I knew they were going to take our three day waiting period and one gun a month thing away. And to hear Jeff Kessler, who is one of the brighter lights up there, say — well all you have to do is drive to South Charleston (to bypass Charleston\u2019s gun restrictions) — well, we think that ought to be our call. But we\u2019ve learned, or at least I\u2019ve learned, that all of our problems as cities emanate from the building you are doing your show from, whether it\u2019s pensions, or guns, or any of these zoning laws or anything. It all emanates from up there. We\u2019re a political subdivision of the state. And most of the people who are up there aren\u2019t urban thinkers. That\u2019s politely putting it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody knows what\u2019s going to finally happen with the gun bill because it\u2019s in a fluid state right now. It\u2019s still being hashed back and forth. We ought to get the environmental community, or somebody who wants to clean water, we ought to get the NRA to come in here and lobby for that. Then maybe there wouldn\u2019t be anymore chemical spills, no more coal slurry in the river.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Charleston Mayor Danny Jones says state legislators ought to be focusing on protecting the waters of West Virginia, but instead are focused on guns, gays and abortion. \u201cYou started out talking about abortion,\u201d Jones told Hoppy Kercheval, who was hosting … Continue reading