Talk of stricter gun control has stirred up a lot of unease here, a place where hunters vie for top prize (a 26 inch LED television) in the Big Buck Photo Contest, and ads for a gun simulator game ask, "Feel like shooting something today?" But before Senator Joe Manchin III invited a group of 15 businessmen and community leaders to lunch last week to discuss the topic, he had only a vague idea of how anxious many of his supporters were. "How many of you all believe that there is a movement to take away the Second Amendment?" he asked. About half the hands in the room went up. Despite his best attempts to reassure them -- "I see no movement, no talk, no bills, no nothing" -- they remained skeptical. "We give up our rights one piece at a time," a banker named Charlie Houck told the senator. If there is a path to new gun laws, it has to come through West Virginia and a dozen other states with Democratic senators like Mr. Manchin who are confronting galvanized constituencies that view any effort to tighten gun laws as an infringement.
Read the article: The New York Times
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