What is the West Virginia Citizens Defense League?
The West Virginia Citizens Defense League (WVCDL), West Virginia’s largest pro-gun lobbying group, is a non-partisan, non-profit, all-volunteer, grassroots organization of concerned West Virginians who support our individual right to keep and bear arms for defense of self, family, home and state, and for lawful hunting and recreational use, as guaranteed by Article III, §22 of the WestVirginia Constitution and the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
WVCDL was created to fill a void left by the lack of a state-level organization in West Virginia lobbying the Legislature on behalf of our interests as law-abiding gun owners and exists to protect and restore the right to keep and bear arms in West Virginia through legislative action.
WVCDL is seeking to enact several critical, long-overdue bills for West Virginia gun owners, including:
- Restoring the right to keep and bear arms by removing the requirement to be subjected to registration, taxation, and licensure just to conceal a firearm.
- Restoring the right to possess firearms on public property.
- Protection of CHL holders’ personal information, which is currently available as a public record to anyone from an anti-gun newspaper seeking to intimidate CHL holders to nosy neighbors to an abusive ex-spouse who wants to know where you currently live.
- Concealed handgun license reciprocity reform to enable West Virginia’s CHL holders to lawfully carry in other right-to-carry states that have adopted reciprocity legislation.
- Reducing the excessive fees currently charged for CHLs in West Virginia. Compared to our neighboring right-to-carry states, West Virginia charges fees of between 167% and 360% of what Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania CHL holders are charged by their states.
- Allowing members of the military and honorably discharged veterans to submit their proof of military service as an acceptable form of proof of training to obtain a CHL.
- Requiring Chief Law Enforcement Officer sign-off for items subject to the National Firearms Act.