By unanimous approval of its voting membership, at meeting duly assembled in Weston, Lewis County on November 13, 2010, the CPWV has adopted the following platform position on the Second Amendment and Personal Defense.
We affirm Article III, § 22 of the Constitution of West Virginia whereby all men have the right to keep and bear arms for the defense of self, family, home, and state and for lawful hunting and recreation use.  As such, we support the Castle Doctrine which holds that law-abiding citizens should not be forced to retreat in the face of criminal attack, and should be legally entitled to meet force with force to save their own lives and the lives of others or for the protection of property.  State laws should be reformed to prohibit criminals from suing for “damages,” prohibit employers from firing workers who lawfully store their firearms in locked vehicles, and prohibit firearms confiscation or use in a time of local or national emergency.
Furthermore, such arms are not limited to just those functional via gunpowder, but include any variety of implement which a free person may choose to employ in repel of unwanted aggression, or for a tool, hobby, or collectible purposes.  Such property shall be free of any sort of arbitrary size, shape, configuration, or quantity restrictions, and may be kept in any safe controlled location of its owner’s choosing, anywhere on his person or otherwise.
National “instant check” information should not be retained in any form of database. We strongly oppose the collection of names of gun show attendees for forwarding to federal government authorities, as this is a form of surveillance.  We oppose the licensing of gun owners, all forms of gun registration, and any form of rationing of firearms, munitions, component sales or limiting the production thereof.  Additionally, we advocate Alaska, Arizona, and Vermont style freedom where no permit or fee is required to exercise a person’s right to open or conceal carry a weapon, and seek reciprocity with the several States for the same.  The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
In his original draft of the Bill of Rights, George Mason wrote “… a well regulated Militia, composed of the Body of the People, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe Defense of a free State; that Standing Armies in Time of Peace are dangerous to Liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided as far as the Circumstances and Protection of the Community will admit; and that in all Cases, the military should be under strict Subordination to, and governed by the Civil Power.”  And, in Federalist 46, James Madison wrote, “Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be able to repel the danger. …To these [a standing army] be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops.” It is clear, therefore, that our founders intended for the militia to be our peacetime force comprised of ordinary citizens rather than professional soldiers.
In accord with this original intent, we advocate that sheriffs in every county, under the leadership of the governor, make provisions for the reestablishment of a properly trained and equipped, volunteer, and physically fit citizens militia of West Virginia people; Mountaineers who are readily available for call to service to assist the public in any urgent situation preliminary to Congress organizing any other armed force under formal declaration.  This country was founded by patriots who fought with both pen and sword in order to give their posterity the freedoms we enjoy today- a revolution won by common individuals temporarily organized yet considered enemies by their imperial government for their object of resisting the established tyranny.  Lexington and Concord stir the hearts of real Americans.  We must heed George Santayana’s wisdom, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

By unanimous approval of its voting membership, at meeting duly assembled in Morgantown, Monongalia County on April 24, 2010, the CPWV has revised for style the following platform position on the Sanctity of Life.  This position was originally adopted at the Executive meeting of September 23, 2006.
We affirm the God-given sanctity of all human beings, born or un-born, without exception, and with full and equal unalienable rights regardless of their station in life.  To that end, the Constitutions of the United States and West Virginia were ordained and established for “ourselves and our posterity.”  Abortion is a detestable and heinous act against the most innocent of society; no civil government may legalize the taking of the right to life without justification.  In those cases where the life of the mother is at risk, every effort should be made by competent medical professionals to preserve the life of both the mother and the child.  As to matters of rape and incest, it is unconscionable to take the life of an innocent child for the real or accused crimes of his or her father.
We implore the West Virginia State Legislature to exercise the Doctrine of Interposition, as has recently South Dakota’s, to assert the illegitimate usurpation of authority by the Supreme Court in Roe vs. Wade, etc., and declare this poorly decided case for what it is—binding only on the specific parties involved. We seek immediate legislation to criminalize partial birth abortions and enact parental notification and informed consent laws.
Furthermore, we oppose the promotion and use of all abortifacients and defend the employment rights of those who refuse to participate in their distribution.  We oppose all elements of bio-research involving human embryonic or pre-embryonic cells as well as all government “legalization” of euthanasia and suicide.  We similarly oppose all forms of involuntary human experimentation whether they be on military personnel, prisoners, children or adults via undisclosed vaccine contents, municipal water treatment, aerosol sprays, electromagnetic, radiation, or other diabolical technologies.  Whereas our Creator commands us to be fruitful and multiply, all forms of eugenics, selective breeding, cloning, and coercive population control are abominable evils which are contradictory to America’s Christian heritage.

By unanimous approval of its voting membership, at meeting duly assembled in Morgantown, Monongalia County on April 24, 2010, the CPWV has adopted the following platform position on Racial Harmony.
We believe that the peoples of the world are a single family and have a common origin.  One possibility, offered in Scripture, is the story of the tower of Babel whereby, because of their disobedience to God’s command to be fruitful and populate the land, the congregated people had their one language “confounded” and were scattered over all the earth.  This then created genetic isolation which is perhaps the real cause for the origin of modern races of people.  We thus vehemently reject Darwinism, evolutionary theories, and their bigoted derivatives, accepting instead that “All men are created equal” and in His image.
The CPWV appreciates the wisdom of Booker T. Washington who proposed to a biracial audience in his 1895 Atlanta Compromise address, “In all things purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”  We profess that racism is properly defined as “a form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans only as members of groups and never as individuals.” As such, we find nothing wrong with state celebrations and Dixie Decrees in remembrance of Confederate history, its honorable heroes, veterans and their family heritage.  America was founded by unique and rugged pioneers.  It was perseverant nonconformists of daring and optimistic mind-set who built our Republic, not huddled masses of inert complainers.
The corporate media has made much ado about our founders as slave owners, yet little has been said of their emphatic opposition to it.  Having been introduced to America some two centuries prior, slavery was not the product of any of their actions.  Instead, one of the driving forces for separation from Britain was that every attempt among the Colonies to end slavery had been thwarted or reversed by the Crown.  Richard Henry Lee made the pretense of this clear when he explained, “Christianity, by introducing into Europe the truest principles of humanity, universal benevolence, and brotherly love, had happily abolished civil slavery. Let us who profess the same religion practice its precepts… by agreeing to this duty.” In fact, in the years following America’s separation from Great Britain, the majority of the Founding Fathers who had owned slaves released them.  John Adams never owned any slaves.  And George Washington said, “I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it [slavery].” His wish was almost granted when Thomas Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence included an entire paragraph decrying slavery as both an “execrable commerce” and an “assemblage of horrors.” Other Founders outspoken about slavery were John Dickinson, William Livingston, Luther Martin, John Randolph, Caesar Rodney, James Wilson, John Witherspoon, and George Wythe.

In 1774, Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush founded America’s first antislavery society.  John Jay, stating “that men should pray and fight for their own freedom and yet keep others in slavery is certainly acting a very inconsistent as well as unjust and perhaps impious part,” was president of a similar society in New York.  Other prominent Founding Fathers who were members of societies for ending slavery included James Madison, James Monroe, John Marshall and William Livingston.  Franklin also advanced the idea that slaves needed to be educated in order to become contributing members of a free society.  Based in part on the efforts of these men, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts abolished slavery in 1780; Connecticut and Rhode Island did so in 1784; New Hampshire in 1792; Vermont in 1793; New York in 1799; and New Jersey in 1804.  Thus it was the founders who were responsible for planting and nurturing the first seeds for the recognition of black equality and for the eventual end of slavery.  This fact is made clear by Richard Allen, a freed Christian slave from Pennsylvania who became the founder of the A.M.E. Church in America.  In an early address titled To the People of Color, Allen said, “Many of the white people [who] have been instruments in the hands of God for our good, even such as have held us in captivity, are now pleading our cause with earnestness and zeal.”
Yet despite all of this, there are still those who charge that in the Constitution, the Founders considered a black to be only three-fifths of a person.  This is yet another misportrayal of the truth since the records of the Constitutional Convention make clear that the three-fifths clause was actually an antislavery provision.  As Professor Walter Williams explains, “It was slavery’s opponents who succeeded in restricting the political power of the South by allowing them to count only three-fifths of their slave population in determining the number of congressional representatives. The three-fifths of a vote provision applied only to slaves, not to free blacks in either the North or South.” And, the so called Civil War was not about slavery as evidenced by Lincoln’s inaugural speech where he assured Americans that “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” Furthermore, when Lincoln broke his promise, his Emancipation Proclamation did not free any of the slaves remaining in the northern states, and was signed almost two years after the unpleasantness began.  During various state ratifying conventions for the federal Constitution, secession was one of the key terms in agreeing to it.  In fact, right up until the conflict, secession was taught at West Point.  We find nothing wrong with the display of any of the various Confederate flags as symbols of heritage, fidelity, and respect.

The CPWV is not a hate group nor are we associated with any white supremacist militias as is wrongfully categorized by MIAC (Missouri Information Analysis Center), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and its ideological twin, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).  Nor were the Founding Fathers terrorists as BATFE agents have instructed and whistleblowers shown via hidden camera.  For these groups, any defense of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights represents “antigovernment extremism.”  As evidenced by the growing Tea Party movement, millions of Americans have independently arrived at the conclusion that the federal government is indeed an authoritarian leviathan.  Thus it appears that the SPLC, ADL, MIAC and their ilk are engaged in a desperate effort to silence the patriot movement through baseless accusations portraying it as a fringe phenomenon consisting of “dangerous radicals” and “domestic terrorists.”  Of course, this is nothing more than propaganda, character assassination, slander, and defamation; blatant hypocrisy which will not work.  These, or any other groups that would collectively misrepresent our principles, candidates, and activities, have absolutely zero credibility with us.  We hope that the awakening general public recognizes this and feels the same.

By unanimous approval of its voting membership, at meeting duly assembled in Morgantown, Monongalia County on April 24, 2010, the Constitution Party of West Virginia has updated its platform position on Illegal Immigration.  This position was originally adopted at the September 23, 2006 Executive meeting in Terra Alta, Preston County.
Illegal immigration is a clear and present serious and growing danger which is threatening American culture with balkanization and civil unrest.  Whereas massive illegal immigration is de facto invasion, and whereas Article IV, § 4 of the United States Constitution clearly states that it is the function of the government to protect us from such, the State of West Virginia and the people thereof, pursuant to the Tenth Amendment, have the sovereign right and duty to take measures to protect its citizens. We look to the April 2010 Arizona immigration enforcement bill as an example of the proper response of a state legislature to this problem.
We support the vigorous enforcement of current immigration laws and are opposed to amnesty for illegals in any form.  We support the strengthening of employment laws that require employers to verify the legal status of their employees and propose stiff fines and higher penalties for those who knowingly hire undocumented persons in any capacity.  Furthermore, we call for state and local police forces to aggressively pursue such crimes and turn discovered persons over to federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement demanding immediate deportation to their country of origin.  We oppose so-called “city of refuge” sanctuary ordinances and strongly denounce municipalities which promote them.
Because speaking and comprehending our common language is a basic precondition of good citizenship, we support the passage of “English Only” legislation making English the official and exclusive language for all governmental business by our State.  We oppose bilingual ballots and strongly contest Executive Order 13166 which federally mandates them.  Additionally, we are against the granting of any government benefit, including public education, to any illegal alien and support the passage of local ordinances, such as those of Hazelton, Pennsylvania in 2006 which permit residents to refuse services to illegals.