NEW ORLEANS, LA – Earlier today, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin went shooting with local officials in Acadiana and spoke about Senator Mary Landrieu’s "strong support of Second Amendment rights" and her advocacy for oil and gas jobs as chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Senator Manchin on Senator Landrieu’s support of Second Amendment rights: “I come from a gun state, I’m a lifetime member of the NRA and all this, and when we had that horrible shooting in Newtown, people were wanting to ban guns, they were wanting to ban the clips and everything else that we do in a hunting or a gun culture that we come from in Louisiana and West Virginia… [The Manchin-Toomey amendment] is a good piece of legislation, especially for gun owners and the rights and Second Amendment, protecting that. If anything, we got a lot of our rights back as Second Amendment gun owners, Second Amendment rights, that we lost under the Brady Bill. This was a great piece of legislation… Mary looked at it, looked at the facts, and knew it was the right thing to do, and it’s still the right thing to do…”

Senator Manchin on the impact Senator Landrieu has on energy jobs as chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: “We have people that basically are opposed to coal and natural gas and oil and all the things we do in our two states of Louisiana and West Virginia. We need that opportunity too, and we didn’t get that opportunity until Mary Landrieu became chairman. With Mary Landrieu as chairman, everyone is getting a hearing, we’re getting to tell our story now and basically saying, ‘Listen, we’re for wind and solar and hydro, and we’re for all the renewables.’ But it doesn’t carry the day and doesn’t energize our country. It’s a great complement. You’ve gotta have the coal and the gas and the oil and nuclear, the things that we know that basically this country has to have to be reliable and dependable and affordable. Mary gets it.”

Senator Manchin on Senator Landrieu’s relentless advocacy for Louisiana: “…I sat with her on other committees in the Senate, and I see what she does there and how she looks at what affects Louisiana. She never forgot where she comes from, and she doesn’t forget who she represents. That’s pretty special because a lot of people get into Washington, they kind of forget about the hometown people. Mary hasn’t done that.”

Senator Landrieu and Senator Manchin have worked closely together on "protecting Second Amendment rights, increasing support to build the Keystone Pipeline, and fighting onerous regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency, among other issues."

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