It’s safe to say that they do things a bit differently in West Virginia. Other states, including New Jersey and New York, along with Ohio, have been setting up lottery systems for people who are getting vaccinated. The cash prizes are fairly large in some cases, totaling more than one million dollars for some winners. But in West Virginia, Governor Jim Justice wanted to make things a bit more interesting. If you agree to roll up your sleeve and get a jab, you might just win yourself a new firearm. This innovative way of bribing people into agreeing to be vaccinated might prove popular in one of the states known for its fiercely pro-Second Amendment laws and widespread hunting and shooting sports culture. But surely they are putting some limits on this giveaway, right? (WTRF News)

During his Tuesday coronavirus briefing, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice gave full details of West Virginia’s new vaccine incentive program.

‘Faster we get them across the finish line, the more money we save,’said Gov, Justice.

The vaccine lottery will run from June 20- August 4 and the drawings will be once a week.

To be clear, the lottery isn’t only giving away guns to the winners. The list of prizes is actually fairly impressive. The winners will be eligible for:

• Two full, four-year scholarships to any West Virginia institution for students ages 12 to 25-years-old
• Two brand-new, custom-outfitted trucks
• Two “25-weekend getaways” to West Virginia State Parks
• Five lifetime hunting and fishing licenses
• Five custom hunting rifles
• Five custom hunting shotguns
• One million dollars

The million-dollar prize will definitely be a big draw, but the rest of the options aren’t too shabby either. I’m not sure what happens if someone without children winds up winning one of the scholarships, though. Perhaps they can give it away to another family member?

The ten firearms being given away shouldn’t be much of an issue. They aren’t awarding any handguns, only long rifles. And West Virginia is a constitutional carry state, so as long as the winners are 18 years of age and not convicted felons, they should be all set.

People who are already vaccinated will still be eligible to enter after proving their vaccination status. That’s a good thing because as of this week, more than 40% of the total population has had at least one shot and an impressive 75% of those age 50 and older are fully vaccinated. If you left that many people out of a chance at the lottery there would probably be a lot of hurt feelings.

I see nothing particularly wrong with these sort of incentives as long as the vaccines aren’t being made mandatory by the government. But at the same time, I keep getting dragged back to the one question we’ve wrestled with here before. The real targets of programs such as this aren’t the people who were not previously eligible or had a hard time getting an appointment. What Governor Justice is trying to do is reach the truly vaccine-hesitant who either don’t trust the rapidly deployed vaccines or would simply prefer to rely on their own immune systems to protect them. And if you already don’t trust the vaccines, one obvious question is going to be cropping up in your mind. ‘Gee. Nobody ever paid me to get a flu shot. What’s up with this?’