Gun Rights Bill Moves Through the Legislature

A much-needed bill is on it's way to being law. According to The State Journal...

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, police officers confiscated hundreds of firearms. The West Virginia House of Delegates has taken a major step in ensuring something similar doesn't happen here.
House Bill 2471 passed the House unanimously Feb. 22. The bill, introduced by Speaker Rick Thompson, D-Wayne, would prohibit the restriction on lawful use of firearms and ammunition during a declared state of emergency.

See the WVCDL's Legislative Tracking webpage for the status of important firearm legislation in West Virginia for 2013.

2013 WVCDL Legislative Tracking

The WVCDL has released its 2013 West Virginia Legislative Tracking webpage. Here is a list of bills that the organization is currently supporting, in order of importance:

• HB2558 - Strengthen preemption to strip old gun bans from various cities (WVCDL bill) - strongly support
• HB2572 - hunting cleanup, loaded magazines in vehicles allowed, open carry in the woods and in a car allowed. (WVCDL bill) - strongly support
• HB2560 - School carry for all CCW (WVCDL bill) - strongly support
• HB2561 - Waiver of CCW fees for veterans - strongly support
• HB2465 - Strengthen preemption (Weaker and more complex than WVCDL bill) - Strongly Support
• HB2471 - Prohibits confiscation and restriction during state of emergency. (Speaker Thompson's bill, this will pass the house with strong WVCDL support)
• HB2502 - Prohibits doctors from asking questions about firearms - strongly support
• HB2135 - Allows weapons securely stored in vehicles on state capitol complex. - support
• HB2294 - Allows firearms in parking lots of companies that prohibit firearms, school pickup/drop-off - support
• HB2390 - Teachers CCW on school property with Board of Ed approval - support
• HB2427 - States that firearms manufactured in-state are not subject to federal regulation - support
• HB2431 - Allowing recovery of rights for people with expunged convictions and judicial review - support
• HB2437 - Exempt handgun training from sales tax - support
• HB2459 - Allow carry with additional fees and background checks on capitol complex - support
• HB2504 - Nullification act for federal laws - support

The WVCDL is asking that residents contact their state legislators and voice their support. You can find your representative here.

Ranson Withdrawals Illegal Ordinance

There was an attempt to pass an illegal city ordinance in the eastern-panhandle city of Ranson late last month. Basically, The Ranson City Council proposed an ordinance on June 17th that would have made it illegal for anyone (even those with a valid CPL) to carry a firearm onto any city property. According to The Journal (Martinsburg):

“A fellow showed up at a recreational event and apparently he or she had a gun and frankly we did not have the means by which to, no law saying they couldn’t have a gun,” Mayor A. David Hamill said.
The man did have a permit to carry a concealed weapon, but agreed to remove the gun from the public field. The council now wants to enact an ordinance that would allow the city to prohibit people from carrying firearms on public property owned by the city.
...“The state code allows you to pass an ordinance like this but you have to have an ordinance in order to enforce it,” said city attorney Andy Blake, who drafted the proposed ordinance.

Well, the problem with that is WV Code § 8-12-5a (1999) preempts county and local governments from making firearms laws that are more restrictive then the WV State Code. Since WV laws only specify a few government buildings (like courthouses) as gun-free zones, the city of Ranson has no legal right to further restrict the carrying of firearms.
After pressure from the West Virginia Citizens Defence League, the city of Ranson dropped the proposed ordinance from their agenda. WVCDL president Jim Mullins and other gun rights supports attended the next city council meeting on July 1st to express their thanks for the city dropping the ordinance.
But this may just be the tip of the iceberg. According to the WVCDL:

In the course of investigating this issue, we have found that several other cities may be violating the preemption law, emboldened, in part, by the poor drafting our current preemption law contains. For the last two years, WVCDL has had bills introduced in the Legislature (2007 SB 715 & 2008 SB 732) to substantially strengthen the preemption law and bring all state & local government agencies under its coverage.

According to the same story in The Journal cited above:

"(Ranson's ordinance was) the same type of ordinance that (city attorney Andy) Blake wrote for the city of Martinsburg that is now enforced. The ordinance itself uses the same exact language as the state code but the phrase 'government entities' was replaced with the 'city of Ranson'."

 While no reports of actual enforcement of the Martinsburg ordinance have been found through an Internet search, it is obvious that just the existence of this ordinance is in violation of the state code.