MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A conceal carry permit holder expects unintended consequences, at least for businesses, now that conceal carry laws have changed in West Virginia.
The Morgantown AM listener, who has held a permit to carry a concealed weapon for 15 years, said he is already seeing business owners react.
“Someone who has never thought about the fact that they didn’t prohibit guns in their establishment are now putting up signs because of this law,” he said. “I’m guessing from now on, we’re going to see a lot more people that prohibit guns than ever did before because now it’s on the radar.”
The Morgantown resident, who travels the state for business, obtained his own permit to carry a concealed weapon while on the road. While he told WAJR he rarely carries, he will rethink where he does business in the future.
“If I have the choice between frequenting someone who does or doesn’t, I will use the facility that doesn’t prohibit. I can tell you, I own a business and our company does not prohibit you to come in with a conceal carry.”
On Tuesday, West Virginia residents who are at least 21 years old became eligible to carry a concealed weapon without going through a permitting process.
Despite being vetoed in Charleston by Governor Tomblin, the legislation eliminating required safety or training courses and a permit to carry a concealed weapon passed when lawmakers collected enough votes to override the governor’s decision.
Having gone through the training previously, the WAJR caller said the former process to obtain a permit may not be what some residents assumed.
“Those courses, at least my experience, have been more on the law and what you can and can’t do with that and some of the downfalls and very little actually hands on training to allow you to protect someone.”
In fact, he claimed less than a third of the course work involved hands on training with a weapon.
“The remaining part of the class had to do with rules, regulations, laws surrounding conceal carry. So, from a safety standpoint, you’re really not getting what I the general public thinks you are when it comes to conceal carry.”
The new constitutional carry law does require West Virginia residents who are 18 to 20 years old to have a permit along with safety training before being legally able to carry a concealed weapon.
A number of public facilities continue to have a ban on concealed weapons.
The WV state attorney general’s office released “On the Mark A Guide to Concealed Handgun Laws in West Virginia”.
It details prohibited locations for concealed weapons and reciprocity regulations.