Stay Out of West Virginia

West Virginia set the standard for smart moves by states when it seceeded from Confederate Virginia and threw its lot in with the Union.

 

Its decision-making has been downhill ever since.

 

Spocko at Hullabaloo:

Starting today, May 24, 2016, legislation goes into effect that will allow most West Virginia residents to carry concealed handguns without a permit.

They also aren't required to have any training. At all. As in zero. Nadda. Zilch.

That means no safety training with a gun is required. No live-fire training with a gun is required. They aren't even required to watch a 5 minute video on gun safety.

This is insane.

West Virginia is now one of eight states where no permits are required: Alaska, Arizona, Wyoming, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi and Vermont.

I watched some of the video of West Virginians legislators talking about this decision and it boggles my mind this passed.

Friends who carry concealed guns take the required training very, very seriously. One has explained how dangerous it is for people from states with weak or no training requirements to be allowed reciprocity carry with his state.

The people in the conceal carry world hammer on the need for training. I was watching a live fire conceal carry training video today. A guy who regularly carries a gun and spends hours at the firing range froze up and screwed up in a live fire training session. And he knew this training was happening!

But apparently the good legislators from West Virginia know better than the experts in the conceal carry world and their own experts in law enforcement.