The West Virginia House of Delegates passed legislation Wednesday night to allow concealed permit holders to carry a gun for self-defense while on campus.
The legislation now heads to the West Virginia Senate.
WOWK-TV reports that the legislation, HB 2519, was sponsored by Del. Jim Butler (R-Mason County). It would allow carry on college campuses but bans “firearms [in] stadiums with more than 1,000 seats, daycare centers and campus law enforcement buildings.”
Opponents of the measure stressed the financial cost of allowing concealed carry on campus. Second Amendment opponents used the same approach to try to stop the passage of campus carry in Texas in 2015 while supporters of self-defense pointed out that the cost of concealed carry are borne by the carrier not the institution. And just over a year after Texas’ campus carry legislation was signed into law the Dallas Morning News reported that public colleges and universities had spent “hundreds of thousands” of dollars versus the “multi-millions dollar” costs that were predicted.
Campus carry is currently the law of the land in Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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