West Virginia Senate Passes Preemption Bill to include more Weapons

By Dean Weingarten

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- The West Virginia Senate passed Senate Bill 96, a reform of the state weapons preemption law, on 11 February 2020. It passed with a vote of 30 in favor, 2 opposed.

It appears all 50 states have some form of weapons preemption law. Such laws prohibit local governments from enacting rules, ordinances or limits on the exercise of Second Amendment rights. This ensures some weapons laws are uniform across the entire state.

The preemption laws vary in effectiveness and scope. In West Virginia, the current preemption law §8-12-5a has this heading:

§8-12-5a. Limitations upon municipalities’ power to restrict the purchase, possession, transfer, ownership,carrying, transport, sale and storage of certain weapons and ammunition.

The current law prohibits local governments from regulating revolvers, pistols, rifles, shotguns, or any ammunition components, in a manner in conflict with state law.

SB96 expands the protection of the current preemption law to include the most deadly weapons and pepper spray. From Senate Bill 96:

(b) For the purposes of this section:

“Deadly weapon”means an instrument which is designed to be used to produce serious bodily injury or death or is readily adaptable to that use. The term “deadly weapon”includes, but is …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand