The West Virginia senate made short work of passing SB 347, also known as the constitutional carry bill. The bill was amended in the house to change the minimum age for carrying concealed without a permit from 18 to 21 and passed in that chamber by a 71 to 29 margin, with 51 Republicans and 20 Democrats voting for the bill. Earlier this week, the Senate confirmed the amended house vote. Observers at opencarry.org predict . . .

that Governor Earl Tomblin (above) will allow the bill to become law without his signature:

No one expects him to (sign it). He’s expected to ignore it and let the 10 days run out until it becomes law.
I think it would be political suicide to veto it.

The bill passed the Senate easily with a 32-2 vote.

Think how happy Charleston mayor Danny Jones will be once constitutional carry is the law of the land in The Mountain State.

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Gun Watch

Update: Considerable resources are being expended to pressure Governor Tomblin to veto SB 347.  I have been informed that MoMs Demanding Action and Everytown are organizing phone banks to pressure the Governor, that even Joe Manchin is said to be pressuring him.  While the bill passed with veto-proof majorities, the governor can veto it.  The Legislature is no longer in session, so if the bill is vetoed, there will not be a way to override the veto.  As a Democrat, more pressure would need to be applied from the supporters of constitutional carry, than from opponents, to prevent him from vetoing the bill.

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43 COMMENTS

  1. Awesome! Will the mainstream media factually report how blood *won’t* be running in the streets? I doubt it.

  3. West Virginia but not Texas. I’m surprised the southern states are having trouble passing the same.

    • For this Arizona boy, Texas gun politics always surprised me. After learning about the racist origins of its handgun laws and the long legacy of Democrat rule nothing this state does surprises me anymore. Admittedly, it’s getting better, but the RINO Joe Strauss is still Speaker of the House. When Texas dumps him, then I’ll believe things are truly changing for the better.

      • It’s nice to sit in the comfort and safety of our 2015 homes in the suburbs and decry the racist origins of our firearms laws. I know because I, like you, do the same thing. Well.

        Let’s remember (learn?) a little historical context. In the late 19th century, we’d already seen immense violence out of blacks. Murderous slave revolts had occurred in Haiti, Jamaica and Louisiana and had resulted in the killing of nearly 60 whites during the Nat Turner slave uprising in Virginia in 1831. These weren’t idle, academic matters for whites and their equally white lawmakers at the time. Even today, who (and be honest!) is responsible for a disproportionate amount of criminal violence? Hmm? Exactly.

        Yes, it was unconstitutional. Yes, it was racist. Yes, it was, and would be today, a recognition of very grave practical realities.

          • In the context of the atrocities committed, many of the slave revolts were murderous. Killing defenseless women and children, regardless of the circumstances, is hard to justify. Slavery is a morally abominable practice, as is the murder of children.
            I highly doubt Jonathan is attempting to justify the practice of slavery but he does make valid points when looking at it from a historical perspective.

        • So, RP, did God committ atrocities in convincing Phaoroh to let Moses and his people leave? Plagues and whatnot.

          When you engage in slavery you got no complaints coming when those in bondage get a little emotional.

        • IMHO, there can be no adequate defense of government wholesale denying a people their right to keep and bear arms. It’s tyranny regardless of who does it or why they do it.

        • RP. I’ve tried to reply to you 3 times and my comments keep vanishing. What happened when god liberated Moses and his bunch from Egypt. Where the plagues and deaths justifiable?

          If you practice slavery you have no complaint when those you hold in chains get a little emotional with the situation.

        • Put another way, governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Apparently, those slaves were not consenting of the manner in which they were being governed. Infringing upon the right to keep and bear arms wasn’t a just solution to government’s problem. The real solution was gaining the consent of those governed. Disarming people is tyrannical and not the behavior of proper government.

          We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

    • I’m surprised any state has a problem passing this. As for Strauss, he is elected by, what, 20,000 voters? And his job pays 7500 bucks a year? He’ll leave when he wants to, it’s not worth it to get crazy about replacing him.

      • Larry,

        Strauss can hang around all he wants. I just want a different speaker is all. Someone as pro gun as my rep, Stickland.

  4. Astonishingly good news! With those numbers, you wonder why it was not passed long ago! I hope this is an indication of things to come.

    • Well the Democrats controlled both house of government until this last election.

      You can do the math.

  5. Representative Saccone has introduced H B 230 , Constitutional Carry for Pa. Lets do It !!!

  6. Congratulations WV! Your victory there will help us in other states as it continues to spread.

  7. So it would not have passed if the minimum age was 18? How insulting is that? Besides all the obvious “you can die for your country” points, there is also the slippery slope to worry about here. I’ve already heard proposals to up the age for alcohol and cars to 25. The infamous health insurance exception for “kids” up to 25 years old is another example. “30 is the new 20” was more than a decade ago and it has come full circle. At some point, social science will deem any person under 40 to be a juvenile.

    • I think it would have passed with the 18 y/o limit but it was felt that it could have slowed things down to the point where the whole bill gets sunk.

    • ” At some point, social science will deem any person under 40 to be a juvenile.”

      Exposure to Progressive social order stunts the development of personal responsibility and critical thinking skills leading to a helpless state of emotional immaturity.

      That is their plan and expectation. After all, ‘Some Animals are more equal than others’.

    • That’s the insulting, inevitable arc of liberalism. Just follow its hateful, hopeless trajectory and see that it targets transforming everyone into infants or otherwise de facto wards of the state; altogether undeserving and incapable of excercising their God-given rights.

  8. I assume this will include non residents as well? I travel from Indiana to Nc a few times a year. I don’t stop in Wv, on principle, because they don’t honor my LTCH. Maybe I’ll be able to rethink that soon.

  10. As a current resident of WV I can say that Bloomberg money is pouring into this state to defeat this bill. What Tomblin needs to remember however is that his own party supported this bill by a wide margin. He may not like it but vetoing it will seriously poison the voting base in the upcoming elections for governor and other offices. The WVCDL here has become a major player in 2A rights for this state and have learned how to turn on the pressure.

    • Tragically unlikely. Politics in this state are very crooked, in fact there are a lot of people who switched parties shortly after their death.

    • At the end of the day, Manchin is still a Dem holding national office. What do you expect?

  12. Read the bill (I think)–and am a bit confused. Saw all the language pertaining to obtaining a CCL, but nothing re “constitutional carry”. Am I correct in assuming that the criminal statutes prohibiting carrying a handgun were simply repealed? What is the status of open carry?

  13. Tomblin is a Democrat in a state where Dems once ruled but is now beginning to trend red. I expect him to exercise his veto power but I’m willing to be pleasantly surprised.

  14. Christ Huntington has had an average of 1.5 heroin overdoses a day since 1/1/15, be more worried about that. I think the 18 y/o change is more to keep in line with federal sales of pistols. I can remember Arch Moore & bribery still got back in.

    CabaWayLingo area used to have a saying similar to Chicago ” if all the people that voted stood up the graveyards would be empty”. Know for a fact that my Aunt voted for Obama in 2008, died Memorial Day 2006.

    • When I lived in WV there was an election for some local office in the cabwaylingo area. There were something like 7 thousand registered voters in the area. The dem candidate got 12 thousand votes and the gop got 11 thousand.

      For the next 6 months after that every barber shop in the area was rolling in laughter.

      You gotta love WV politics.

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