WVCDL's proposed West Virginia Gun Owner Protection Act of 2011

After months, er, years, of drafting, we are pleased to unveil the West Virginia Gun Owner Protection Act of 2011, a comprehensive proposed revision of West Virginia's gun laws that expands the rights of law-abiding gun owners and increases the penalties for the criminal misuse of firearms and other weapons.

There's a lot of material packed into this bill. Over the last 4 years, we have proposed bits and pieces of this bill on a piecemeal basis. This year, we made the strategic decision to consolidate our agenda into one primary bill witht he intent of advocating it as a package deal and attempting to enact more in one large bill than would be practical with dozens of smaller bills. As part of this decision, we took into consideration the historic tendency of our Legislature, regardless of the subject matter involved, to tend to only handle a very small number of bills pertaining to any particular subject each year, with a preference for consolidating related issues.

We expect this bill to be introduced in both houses of the Legislature within the next 2 weeks. Because this bill has not yet been introduced, it is not necessary at this time to contact your legislators. Once this bill is introduced, we will then ask you to contact your legislators . . . often.

Feel free to comment here or send me a PM if you want to discuss (or maybe even debate) various aspects of this bill.

Jim, one MAJOR problem

Jim, there is one major problem. You mentioned that there is a duty to inform in most cases. This is bad.

Wyoming Gun Owners has a video clip of why this is bad

http://wyominggunowners.org/videos/alaska-carry-legislation-beware/

This is very bad and I would hate to see it pass if this is what the bill does.

Must inform clauses are insane because any criminal or prohibited possessor can not be compelled to incriminate themselves. Secondly, the video show's why it is bad and this law is abused. Thirdly, maybe I do not want others around me to know that I'm carrying and by telling the cop, I would be telling other people. Finally, I have seen this abused in Michigan. A friend of mine who manages a bar was abused under this statute and I have heard on other police channels that black folks are jammed up on this clause alot.

I've had other police departments tell me (because I'm a LEO they assume the thin blue line applies) that white people get slack on this in Michigan. Also, it is used to put anyone on the defensive.

Bad news all around. I strongly recommend that part of the bill gets removed. If they insist that it remains for passage, then at least try to get the must inform portion removed for permit holders so carry permit holders don't lose any freedom from this legislation.

It also led to an elderly black man being thrown in jail in Detroit (with no apology after they found out he was legal). He was pulled over for DWB, he informed of his CPL, the county forgot to put his renewal in the database, the cop said his permit was fake, dragged him out of the car, and brought him to jail.

Other than that, it's a great bill with great attention to detail, especially the part with the weapons preemption (instead of just firearms preemption).