West Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.

PO Box 11371 • Charleston, WV 25339-1371

Join our free WVCDL-ALERT e-mail list by using the form in the right column below or by texting WVCDL to 22828.

About Us

The West Virginia Citizens Defense League (WVCDL) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 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 protected by the state constitution and the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.

WVCDL is proud of its accomplishments and remains the leading West Virginia-based gun rights organization.

Click here for more information about the WVCDL.

Click here for WVCDL membership information.

WVCDL Lobby Day 2012

WVCDL members at Lobby Day

Mark your calendars! WVCDL's annual Lobby Day at the West Virginia Legislature in 2012 will be on President's Day, Monday, February 20, 2012.

WVCDL Lobby Day will be on President's Day annually, with the exception of inaugural years (2013 and every 4th year thereafter), when the Legislature meets one month later than other years. It is imperative that every concerned gun owner take the time to go to the State Capitol to personally lobby your legislators to pass pro-gun bills.

To see where your legislators stand on gun rights issues, check out WVCDL's 2008 and 2010 legislative candidate surveys and responses. In 2010, WVCDL asked candidates their positions on:

Increasing recognition of other states' concealed handgun licenses to expand West Virginia's reciprocity with other states
(Questions 1-3).
Closing public access to concealed handgun license records so anti-gun newspapers like the Charleston Gazette will no longer be able to harass and intimidate gun owners by printing the names of individuals who have concealed handgun licenses (Question 4).
Alaska/Arizona/Vermont-style carry without a license (Question 10).
Reforming state preemption to eliminate grandfathered ordinances in Charleston, Dunbar, and South Charleston (Question 12).
Preempting state agency rules (including state college & university carry bans) (Question 13).
Repealing or reducing specific restrictions on where law-abiding citizens may carry a handgun for self-defense (Questions 15-19).
Standardizing the NFA transfer process (Question 25).
Increasing the personal accountability of members of the House of Delegates through single-member districts (Question 27).

WVCDL's West Virginia Gun Owner Protection Act of 2012 contains these pro-gun reforms and many others important to you. Your help is critical to promoting our strong gun rights agenda--both in terms of passing the West Virginia Gun Owner Protection Act of 2012 and tackling emerging issues such as stopping Charleston's "voluntary" gun registration scheme and remaining vigilant against dishonest attacks on West Virginia gun owners.

WV Concealed Carry Reciprocity as of April 4, 2012:

Official state reciprocity information pages:

West Virginia

Alaska -- Arizona -- Arkansas -- Delaware -- Florida -- Kansas -- Kentucky -- Louisiana -- Michigan
Mississippi -- Missouri -- New Mexico -- North Carolina -- North Dakota -- Ohio -- Oklahoma
Pennsylvania -- South Carolina -- South Dakota -- Tennessee -- Texas -- Utah -- Virginia -- Wyoming

Idaho -- Indiana -- Iowa (alt) -- Montana -- Nebraska (alt) -- Nevada

WVCDL Challenges Open Carry Harassment in Wheeling

Under West Virginia law, no license is required to openly carry an unconcealed handgun; an adult who is not prohibited by federal or state law from possessing firearms may lawfully carry a handgun in most places if the handgun is carried openly and unconcealed. WVCDL believes the decision on whether and in what manner (openly or concealed with a license) to carry a handgun in a lawful manner is a personal decision.

On May 11, 2011, WVCDL joined WVCDL member Keith Owen Campbell and his father, Larry Campbell, in a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia against the City of Wheeling, its police chief, and 4 individual Wheeling police officers, challenging numerous violations of the Campbells' constitutional and civil rights while Keith Owen Campbell was lawfully and openly carrying his handgun on December 4, 2010, and the ongoing threat of further harassment of individuals who choose to open carry in the City of Wheeling.

A copy of the complaint in Campbell v. City of Wheeling, which includes a thorough statement of facts, is available at WVCDL's litigation page.

WVCDL Sues Cities of Charleston, South Charleston, Dunbar, and Martinsburg

On January 24, 2011, WVCDL filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia against the cities of Charleston, South Charleston, and Dunbar, and their respective mayors and police chiefs, challenging the constitutionality and statutory validity of ordinances in each of those cities prohibiting carrying a firearm on city-owned property. Additionally, WVCDL is challenging the constitutionality of Charleston's restrictive handgun sales ordinances.

On January 24, 2011, WVCDL filed a lawsuit against the City of Martinsburg, its mayor, its city manager, and its police chief in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, challenging the constitutionality and statutory validity of a Martinsburg ordinance prohibiting carrying a firearm in city-owned buildings.

To read more about both of these cases, visit WVCDL's litigation page.

WVCDL Debunks Bogus "Gun Trafficking" "Study"
by the Bloomberg Gang

On September 27, 2010, the organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a pro-gun control organization led and funded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, released a "study" that correlates "weak state gun laws" with higher rates of "illegal interstate gun trafficking." Click here for the Martinsburg Journal story. Click here (PDF) for WVCDL's press release debunking the Bloomberg Gang's latest piece of junk science offered in support of trampling on our right to keep and bear arms.

WVCDL Condemns Charleston's
"Voluntary" Gun Registration Scheme

On August 17, 2010, the Charleston Gazette and the Charleston Daily Mail reported that the Charleston Police Department has begun an initiative known as "Project Gun Safe," which, according to the Gazette, “includes an effort to document firearms held legally within the city. Charleston police will be distributing safety locks to citizens that voluntarily provide a firearm inventory card for each gun they own to the Charleston Police Department.”

Click here (PDF) for WVCDL's response.