Tag: concealed weapon

Concealed Carry Bill Heads to Governor's Desk with Tax Credit Intact

Members of both the House and Senate approved the final version of a bill Wednesday to remove the permitting and safety training requirements for anyone over the age of 21 to carry a concealed weapon in West Virginia.

House Bill 4145 now heads to Gov. Tomblin’s desk. It includes a compromised tax credit of $50 for completing the optional permitting and safety training that will remain in place. 

Those processes allow West Virginians to receive a license that will be recognized by other states through reciprocity agreements. 

On Tuesday, Governor Tomblin said he would wait to see what the final version looked like before deciding whether to sign the bill, but said law enforcement officials still had concerns with the Senate version, which largely remained the same upon passage Wednesday.

House Bill 4145 includes a provisional licensing process for 18 -to -21-year-olds, who would also be eligible for the tax credit. The bill also increases penalties for anyone who carries a concealed weapon unlawfully and creates a separate felony for the use of a weapon while committing another crime. 

Tomblin vetoed a similar measure during the 2015 session, but it takes only a simple majority to override a gubernatorial veto. 

The governor has five days, not including Sundays, to consider the legislation, leaving members of the Legislature time to override the veto before the session ends on March 12.

Tomblin: Concerns Remain with Constitutional Carry Bill

Governor Tomblin was hesitant to say Tuesday whether he’d sign a Senate-approved bill that removes the permitting and safety training requirements to carry a concealed weapon in West Virginia.

The bill was approved by the upper chamber Monday and was expected to be reconsidered by the House of Delegates Tuesday; however the bill did not come up on the floor.

House Speaker Tim Armstead told members of the chamber his staff was still reviewing the changes Senators made to the legislation that originated in the House.

Along with removing the current permitting requirements, House Bill 4145 adds a provisional permitting process for 18 to 21-year-olds, and creates three new felony charges. Those charges include a felony for unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon and increased charges for using a weapon while committing another crime.

“With what went through the Senate, law enforcement officials still has a lot of concern with the bill as it went through,” Tomblin said Tuesday.

“We’ll wait to see what the House of Delegates does and what the final product is before I really make a comment on it, but I can say that law enforcement still does have concern about the bill as it stands today.”

In his veto of similar legislation approved during the 2015 session, Tomblin also cited law enforcement concerns over public safety.

The bill as amended by the Senate would need to be approved by the House before it’s sent to the governor’s desk. Otherwise, the bill will go to a conference committee where representatives of each chamber will negotiate the final version. 

Senate Committee Makes Change to Concealed Carry Bill

Over two days, the Judiciary Committee considered and approved some changes to House Bill 4145. 

In its current form, the bill would remove both the permitting and safety training requirements to carry a concealed weapon in the state. It would allow 18 to 21-year-olds to obtain a provisional permit to carry concealed.

The House bill also includes increased penalties for people who unlawfully carry a gun or use a weapon to commit a crime. 

The Senate committee’s amended bill removes the $100 tax credit members of the House of Delegates included for people who go through the permitting process after the legal requirement is removed.

Wednesday, members considered an amendment presented by Senator Herb Snyder. The change would require anyone carrying concealed without a permit declare to a law enforcement officer that they had a gun when stopped or detained.

“We’ve all been contacted by a lot of people about this, but without exception the law enforcement community, the Sheriff’s Association, realizes this bill is going to pass,” Snyder told his fellow committee members. “This is the one single item repeated over and over by the contacts from law enforcement that I’ve had that law enforcement would like to have in the bill.”

The amendment failed.

An amendment to prohibit the carrying of a concealed weapon in an establishment that serves alcohol was also rejected by the committee, but the bill as amended was approved and will go to the full Senate for its consideration.

Members of the House have already approved the bill, but since Senators have made changes, the bill will have to go back to the House for another vote. If Delegates do not accept the Senate changes, the  bill will go to a conference committee, which some members of the Senate say is likely.

Constitutional Carry Bill Pulled from Senate Committee Agenda

The Senate Judiciary Committee pulled a bill to remove the permitting requirements to carry concealed weapons in the state from its agenda Monday afternoon. The decision, which came without an explanation during the meeting from Chair Charles Trump, came the same day as a public hearing on the issue. 

“With the push of that green button you told 1 million lawful gun owners in West Virginia that you believed in them,” West Virginia Citizens Defense League lobbyist Art Thomm told lawmakers during the hearing, speaking of a similar bill both the House and Senate approved during that 2015 session. That bill was vetoed by Governor Tomblin.

The 2016 legislation, already approved by the House of Delegates, would allow West Virginians over the are of 21, who are legally allowed to carry a gun currently, to carry a weapon concealed without a permit. It would also allow West Virginians from 18 to 21-years-old to obtain a permit after taking a safety course, like the one currently required under state code.

Members of the Citizens Defense League as well as a representative of the National Rifle Association spoke at the public hearing Monday, asking lawmakers to remove barriers for West Virginians to express their second amendment rights like cost. 

“We can’t as a society just hope that everybody knows what they’re doing,” Frank Hartman with the West Virginia Association of Counties said during the hearing. “The whole fundamental premise of a good guy with a gun stopping a bad guy with a gun is that the good guy knows what they’re doing.”

The association, according to Hartman, would support getting rid of the current fees for a concealed weapons permit if lawmakers kept the safety training course requirement in place. 

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