The West Virginia House has overridden Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s veto of the Constitutional Carry bill, HB 4145, and sent the override to the Senate for their vote. Tomblin vetoed a similar bill enabling non-permitted carry in 2015, after the legislature had adjourned, when a veto override was procedurally extremely difficult. This year, it’s widely believed that the veto will be overridden . . .

HB 4145 passed the House by a margin of 68-31. The Senate passed the bill on a vote of 24-9 (largely across party lines) The Governor’s veto was overridden with a vote in the House by a margin of 64-33 with three representatives not voting. A simple Senate majority is all that’s needed to override the Governor’s veto.

Six states have restored Constitutional Carry to various degrees: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Maine and Wyoming. Vermont has had Constitutional Carry for its entire history.

In addition to West Virginia, legislators are considering Constitutional Carry in Indiana, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah. Mississippi enacted a law last year that’s very close to Constitutional Carry. Constitutional carry is the law in 99 percent of Montana and Idaho.

Fifteen years ago, Constitutional carry was a dream for most Second Amendment supporters. Many derided it as unobtainable. It’s been restored in six states. Fifteen others are debating it, some of which have passed bills with veto proof majorities in previous years.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

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23 COMMENTS

  1. Er…sorry, I iz a furriner, wot haz escaped to America.

    What exactly is Constitutional Carry? I’m guessing that it is Open or Concealed carry not limited by local statute?

    Eh, that would be a nice thing. I can carry Open here in KY, but I just prefer to CCW. So, I go through the rigmarole, fingerprints, course, la di da, which is all a racket. Most of the instructors I’ve come across, well, not over impressed, so far. I shot and handled better’n them-but you can’t say, you need the ticket.

    brendan

    • It is simple. No permits for carry, open or concealed. No training, no finger prints, no nothing. It is called “Constitutional Carry” because in the early days of our Republic, under the Second Amendment, no permits were required to carry firearms. [This would later change beginning in the 1830s to ban concealed carry, because only highway men assassins and robbers would carry their weapons concealed. These laws were upheld as against constitutional challenge.]

  3. The one weakness of such laws is that they are subject to change when the balance in the Legislature changes. If history is any guide, the pendulum will likely swing the other way in about 25 years, So enjoy it while it lasts.

    I can hole out no hope for California. It will not happen. And even if it did, the Ninth Circuit would rule that any such law was unconstitutional!

    • The hope I holdout for, so to speak,is a fear of a future. A future with more violent attacks which prompt a change. A change at a bloody price.

  4. Naturally. When I lived in WV and KY they were may issue. Which meant you had to be connected. Now look. And I live in CA.

    My DI was right. Shit flows downhill and I live in the valley.

  6. I wish PA would actually do some thing with this. I know the bill has been introduced, about a year ago and it just got shoved into a committee with no action since.

  7. Michigan has at least three constitutional carry bills wending their ways through the House. It’ll be an interesting summer for them.

  8. Nice except when you travel to states that require a permit. No permit from your state= no resiprosity is even possible. So only choice is hoping your state still (also) issues a permit or you get a non resident permit from another state.

    In the case of this state -since permits are still issued to those 18-21 it will become hard to find other states that will honor this states permit so a non resident from another state will be about your only choice.

    I’m not putting this in as a complaint – just for informational purposes. Like most of you, we should even have to worry about any of this as stated by the 2A. A

    • The regular West Virgina permit is still available. In Arizona, permit applications dropped for a little bit, then started up again, after we passed Constitutional carry.

  9. Interesting how former slave states freedom grows for all. But in the new slave states of California and New York freedom is going away and a new class of slaves is being created.

    • If that’s not a joke post, gat is a gun. I think it’s old term that comes from Gatling gun but these days rappers and gangsters use it to say gun.

      • Considering he’s said the same thing in the comments of every blog post that’s had the word gat in it (at least 5 or 6 at this point) he’s either joking or trolling.

  11. “Fifteen years ago, Constitutional carry was a dream for most Second Amendment supporters. Many derided it as unobtainable.”

    The biggest concentration of those was in Fairfax. Today, they pretend they won it for us single-handed. Same with the Heller case, which they actually tried to derail. Why do we pay those guys?

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