West Virginia Senate Passes Permitless Concealed Carry for 18-20 Year-Olds

The West Virginia Senate passed legislation Tuesday to allow law-abiding 18-20 year-olds to carry concealed for self-defense without a permit.

West Virginia Watch noted the legislation, Senate Bill 30, passed by a vote of 33 to 1.

Right now, West Virginia allows law-abiding citizens 21 and older to carry concealed for self-defense without a permit and people 18-20 years of age can get a special license to carry. But Wrap Up reported that SB 30 would change that regulations by “effectively [standardizing] concealed carry regulations across all age groups of legal adulthood within West Virginia.”

State Sen. Bill Rose (R) sponsored SB 30, noting that people 18-20 years of age are old enough to serve in the military and therefore should be able to carry a gun for self-defense in day-to-day life as freely as people 21 years of age and older do.

Rose said, “Why should we deny them their full constitutional rights at age 18 when they are old enough to go to war to defend the United States Constitution…?”

He added, “This bill sends the clear message that this body stands for the people of West Virginia and this country, that we understand that second amendment rights to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Companion legislature in the West Virginia House, House Bill 4106, is now before the House Judiciary Committee.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.