WV: Campus Carry Law
Removes Power of "Higher Education"
Administrators to Ban Carry on Campus

By Dean Weingarten. Mar 3, 2023

On March 1, 2023, Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia has signed SB 10, the Campus Carry Act into law. The law goes into effect on July 1, 2024. Governor Justice was enthusiastic about signing the new law. He proudly described his growing up in West Virginia, and told a story about hunting grouse with a 20 gauge shotgun, which was repaired by one of the people in attendance at the ceremony. West Virginia is the 12th state to remove bans on the carry of weapons at institutes of post secondary education. Numerous members of the West Virginia Citizens Defense League (WVCDL) were at the signing ceremony. Many of them had worked for years to obtain this reform.

The new law removes the power of institutions of post secondary education, in West Virginia, to ban the legal carry of concealed handguns, by those with a valid concealed carry permit, in most areas on campus. There are a few areas where the concealed carry of firearms may still be banned by the administrators of institutions of post secondary education. The new law applies primarily to students, educators, and employees of West Virginia institutes of post secondary education. West Virginia law did not and does not ban carry on campus. However, administrators of those institutions were allowed by law to impose administrative penalties for actions which were not banned by West Virginia law. Students could be expelled. Employees could be fired. Lesser sanctions could be imposed.

In effect, the administrations of most institutions of "higher learning" created effective "gun free zones" where most people at the institutions were not allowed to carry defensive weapons. SB 10 removes most of that legal loophole from campus administrators. .....