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The Republicans in the House of Representatives base their balanced budget plan on the very unlikely event of the Affordable Health Care Act being repealed. That's like basing your retirement plan on hitting the Powerball lottery. Ain't gonna happen.

I cannot help but think that all these people against the new and old laws -- Affordable Care Act, restriction of AK-47 type guns, selenium reduction in coal, etc. -- are not against the laws but against the president. President Obama won the election by a large majority of the people who voted for him on his merits. Which means they liked the way he is doing his job.

I would like to thank all of the members of the House of Delegates that took a stand for the overwhelming majority of West Virginians and voted for the new gun legislation. It is a vote for the people and against the liberals in Washington including Obama. We all thank you for standing up for us.

Doesn't the American Freight Company realize that the loud, obnoxious, grating, panicky voice that does their commercial on television turns people off?  It is a wonder they have any business at all.

This state has not had a Democrat for governor since 1985. I mean a Democrat based on what they do, not what they say or the party label they choose to wear.  West Virginia is about 75 percent Republicans who say they are Democrats, but don't have a clue what that even means.

If the teachers unions are fuming, it means there must be something good in the education bill.

I read that in Israel schoolchildren are guarded and protected by armed teachers. If this is true and it works, we should do the same.

It seems that the Legislature's excuse for passing the gun bill is to make all the laws in the state uniform. Why couldn't they make all the state uniform with the sensible gun control bills that the cities had? Don't they realize that we who want sanity in gun sales vote also? The NRA does not speak for everyone in this state.

Millions have been killed worldwide through the years when governments took away their rights. If you think protests like Rand Paul's filibuster are a waste of time and money you are part of the problem. Not the solution.

It's absurd the public has to comment whether we want more poisons (selenium) added to our drinking water. Of course we want kidney failure, we want our kids to be born with deformities. Where is our government protection? We truly have a government only representing dirty coal.

As an RN I am against the sale of tobacco. I think it should be illegal because of its harmful effects. However when I worked in a clinic for lower income patients I realized that people will buy cigarettes instead of their medications or food for their children, so raising the tax will not deter them from buying what they want instead of what they need.

You have to hand it to Kanawha County ... they have a commissioner who hates airports, a school board president who hates libraries and a judge who hates criminals being locked up.

Working for a group of young college educated officers, managers and supervisors, I can't help but think schools of higher learning don't teach anything about common sense.

Bushels of gun laws being overturned?  To use The Charleston Gazette's favorite word (when change goes their way, that is), we must be "evolving."

Any legislator that votes to weaken gun laws should spend a weekend in the emergency room and also attend every funeral of a gunshot victim to realize the impact of their decision.  What are the opinions of police officers in Charleston regarding weaker gun laws?

The signs are that the economy is slowly but surely getting stronger. Even the federal deficit isn't as bad as it was. Turn off Fox News and look at the positive side.

I read where a reader said that when President Bush was elected we put an unprepared, unqualified and self-important man in way over his head. Maybe so. But the real tragedy is that we did the very same thing in 2008 and 2012 when Obama was elected. At least back then, we and our allies knew that Bush was on our side.

It happens quite often when someone is arrested for a violent crime that they were also found to be a felon in possession of a weapon, which is against the law. Why can't some people see that universal background checks would protect the law-abiding gun owner while making it harder for the criminal to get guns?

When people apply for disability, some are approved and evidently, some turned down. Why, then are so many lawyers groups on the bandwagon for reopening these cases, and from all the ads, there must be thousands of them.  Either the persons making the initial decisions are inept or crooked, or the appeals are being paid for in some manner.

Firstly, whether Mayor Danny Jones called the Legislature idiots doesn't matter, but if not, perhaps he should have. Secondly, did Cabela's hire lobbyists to encourage the House of Delegates to pass a bill that would nullify all local city and county firearms regulations across West Virginia, and if so, how much?

So grateful to Delegates Wells, Guthrie, Poore and Skinner for voting their conscience instead of following the direction of the NRA. They will not be forgotten at election time. Wish we had more representatives who could think for themselves.

Delegate Woody Ireland, R-Ritchie County, who spoke for the bill to repeal city, county firearms regulations, was pictured in the Gazette holding up his Cabela's card.  He might as well have been holding up a handful of cash for everyone to see.  Sadly, money seems to be the primary motivator of many of West Virginia's elected representatives. Hats off to those legislators who put the safety of citizens first and had the courage to support local control of firearms regulations.