West Virginia Poised for Constitutional Carry

By Dean Weingarten

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.