Public Comments

Let’s press the issue to get a law for baylea! This girl deserves justice and to be remembered. Let’s not give up on this beautiful young lady who was taken by a drunk driver also under the influence of cocaine when she had no business driving or doing drugs/alcohol. Anyone who provided this girl deserves just as much time as she gets

1. DUI laws should be harsher.  We have people with multiple DUIs resulting in death and we should make it harder for them to get out and do it again
2. nothing will ever bring Baylea or any person that had died as the result of dui and the victims family suffer for the rest of their lives
3. I understand that people should be forgiven but they should pay for what they have done first.  Make them think again before getting behind a wheel drinking and driving

I went to high-school and cheered with Baylea. What happened to her is an awful tragedy, but to know that the responsible person may only get 3 to 15 years of their life altered is a slap in the face. Baylea’s family and friends will be affected by this for the rest of their lives. The punishment should fit the crime.

Justice for Bailey!

DUI is murder. It deserves the same penalty for it.

Baylea was a great person. Her life was ended too soon due to someone else mistake. Let’s now allow slaps on the wrist for lives that have been taken.

Pass Baylee's law.

I oppose HB 4185, which repeals West Virginia’s machine gun ban and makes it lawful to possess fully automatic weapons. The right to own firearms does not erase the public’s right to live, work, and learn without constant fear of gun violence. When the state removes basic limits on the most lethal weapons, it minimizes responsible gun ownership while increasing kids, teachers, health workers, and bystanders risk of gun violence.

I oppose HB 4143, the so‑called “Women’s Bill of Rights.” As a woman and a voter, I see this bill not as a protection, but as a weaponization of my identity to target transgender and nonbinary people and to narrow who “counts” as a woman in West Virginia.

West Virginia is struggling with serious problems: poor educational outcomes, high burdens of chronic disease, and persistent economic hardship for families. Yet another culture war bill just wasted legislative time and taxpayer money rather than solving these real crises. It's actually an insult to the women this bill claims to honor. We deserve policies that expand our rights and opportunities, not bills that erase our neighbors and divide our communities.

If the WV legislature is serious about the issues that affect women on a daily basis, how about addressing equal pay, improving maternal health care, protecting women from violence, or improving women's economic security? That would give women real rights and dignity!

I urge you to reject HB 4143 and commit to legislation that materially improves the lives of all women and gender‑diverse people in our state.

I am a constituent in Beckley, Raleigh County, and I support HB 4095.

I do not support no-knock warrants in any capacity. To be clear, however, I know this legislative body will never agree with that, and this might be as good as it gets. When law enforcement enters a home without warning, the risk of confusion, injury, and death rises sharply for everyone involved, including residents and officers. No-knock tactics undermine public trust.

HB 4095 is an important step toward accountability by limiting qualified immunity when officers serving no-knock warrants use clearly excessive force, knowingly violate the law, or act in plainly incompetent, reckless, or negligent ways that cause injury, death, or psychological trauma.

I also support the bill's requirement that courts review not only the officer’s actions but also the agency’s training, mentoring, and procedures, and that the agency be held responsible if it failed to adequately prepare officers. That matters because harm does not come only from “one bad decision” in the moment. It can also come from systems that tolerate poor training, good-old-boy networks, weak oversight, and a culture of impunity.

West Virginians deserve safety without fear. When force is excessive or conduct is reckless or negligent, the system should have meaningful recourse, and government actors should not be shielded from accountability. HB 4095 moves us closer to public safety rooted in restraint, transparency, and responsibility.

Please support HB 4095.

I am a West Virginia constituent in Beckley, Raleigh County, and I am writing in support of HB 4185. This bill repeals W. Va. Code §61-7-9, removing the section of state code that currently makes it unlawful to possess a machine gun (a fully automatic weapon).

I support the Second Amendment as a practical, meaningful right. I see HB 4185 as a step toward aligning our state law with constitutional principles and restoring rights unnecessarily restricted.

Repealing this corrects what I believe is an overreach by the state and returns lawful adults to the full scope of their 2A rights.

I support HB 4185 because I want West Virginia to affirm that constitutional rights apply in full, not in fragments. Please vote YES on HB 4185

Compose

Labels

• Point 1 (Local Impact): For example, this legislation would directly benefit our

• Point 2 (Facts/Data): Reports show that this approach leads to a more strategic and

1. This bill is terrible for WV and local communities. Do not continue with this bill!

• Reputation of a property
• Volume of police calls
• Allegations or community complaints

• Daily civil fines (up to $1,000 per day)
• Escrow of rent
• Property liens
• License suspension
• Contempt penalties up to $75,000 or incarceration

• Explicitly protect lawful medical cannabis patients from status-based firearm prohibitions
• Require proof of actual impairment, not metabolite presence
• Prevent discriminatory enforcement based on medical treatment

• acknowledge receipt,
• narrow the gate,
• claim jurisdiction limits,
• end communication,
• shift all burden onto the citizen.

• W. Va. Code §29B-1-3 (FOIA) — cited to argue FOIA is for inspection/copying of records and that a request must be made to the custodian with “reasonable specificity,” and that questions about oversight mechanisms are not FOIA requests.  
• W. Va. Code §6B-2-5 and W. Va. Code §6B-2B-1 (Ethics Act “code of conduct” provisions) — cited to assert the Ethics Commission’s jurisdiction is limited and to direct complainants to file an Ethics Act complaint alleging violations within those provisions.  

• It shifts power to the better-funded party (often an employer, institution, or government entity).
• It increases the likelihood of delay, procedural hurdles, and cost pressure.
• It makes enforcement of civil rights depend on whether a complainant can endure full court litigation—effectively turning rights into pay-to-access remedies.

• Secondary sources (treatises, law review articles, academic texts) are persuasive only
• They are not binding law

• West Virginia common law
• Longstanding judicial practice
• Separation-of-powers doctrine

• Chill enforcement of federal constitutional rights
• Invite litigation challenging WV court compliance with federal precedent
• Increase reversals by federal courts

• Due process (U.S. Const. amend. XIV; W. Va. Const. art. III, §10)
• Equal protection (U.S. Const. amend. XIV; W. Va. Const. art. III, §17)
• Religious freedom and establishment (U.S. Const. amend. I; W. Va. Const. art. III, §15)

• Judicial reasoning
• Historical context
• Scholarly interpretation
• Prior case law synthesis

• Certification procedures already exist under court rules and practice
• Courts already have discretion to seek appellate clarification
• No evidence is presented that current mechanisms are insufficient

• Civil rights claims
• Disability protections
• Medical autonomy
• Equal protection challenges
• Minority and marginalized community cases

• W. Va. Const. art. VIII (Judicial Department)
• Longstanding common-law principles

• lawful under federal or state law, or
• constitutional under court rulings.

• property transactions,
• financial account actions, and
• temporary relocation of children.

• creating state criminal penalties,
• restricting family and custody decisions, and
• extending post-deployment enforcement periods.

• no custody order is violated, and
• no finding of harm or abandonment exists.

• impose criminal penalties, or
• enforce family restrictions when the underlying deployment is unlawful or unconstitutional.

• incidents are not documented,
• footage is denied,
• officers are not identifiable, results in no oversight and no remedy for the public.

• failure to enforce existing harassment and stalking laws,
• refusal to document incidents,
• denial of public records,
• or lack of officer identification.

• proper documentation,
• public access to records,
• identifiable officers,
• and enforcement of existing harassment and stalking laws,

• evidence-based standards of care
• professional duty to treat medically indicated conditions
• non-discrimination in access to healthcare

• allows refusal of care based on ideology, and
• simultaneously limits a patient’s ability to seek legal remedy

• immigration-status inquiries during routine policing,
• data sharing for immigration enforcement purposes,
• or the use of minor law enforcement encounters as “impact” metrics,

• Lawfully present international students,
• Individuals lawfully present under federal Compacts of Free Association,
• Indigenous persons with federally recognized cross-border rights,
• Asylum seekers and parolees awaiting federal adjudication,
• Tourists and visitors from countries subject to heightened scrutiny.