Gov. Morrisey signs three gun rights bills into West Virginia law
By Autumn Shelton, RealWV
BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. – Three new laws regarding West Virginia’s Second Amendment rights have now been signed by Gov. Morrisey.
On Friday, at Cacapon Resort State Park, Morrisey signed House Bill 2067, House Bill 3342 and Senate Bill 270.
House Bill 2067, the West Virginia Firearms Liability Clarification Act, provides limitations on negligent marketing claims against a seller or manufacturer of firearms or ammunition and creates a “predicate exception limitation.” The law will go into effect on July 7, 2025.
House Bill 3342, the Firearms Industry Nondiscrimination Act, prohibits banks contracting with the state from discriminating against a firearm entity or firearm trade association. This law, requested by Gov. Morrisey, will go into effect on July 8, 2025.
Senate Bill 270, declares the “sale and manufacture of firearms essential business during declared emergency.” This law goes into effect on July 8, 2025.
“We’re celebrating freedom and our Constitutional rights,” Morrisey said prior to signing the bills into law. “What could be better than to be in a beautiful state park and celebrate freedom?”
Del. Elias Coop-Gonzalez, R-Randolph, lead sponsor of House Bill 2067, was also present during the signing, and spoke about how this law came about.
According to Coop-Gonzalez, he was watching a video on Youtube which discussed “Why Daniel Defense is in trouble.”
“For those of you that don’t know, Daniel Defense is a very large AR-15 manufacturer, and they actually, arguably, manufacture the best AR-15’s in the world,” Coop-Gonzalez said, adding that they are being sued with the same type of lawsuit involving the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005, that “put two gun manufacturers out of business” in Connecticut.
“They put Bushmaster out of business – they’re the ones that produced the AR-15 that was tragically used in the Sandy Hook shooting, and the parent company of Bushmaster, Remington, wasn’t able to absorb the cost of Bushmaster going down, so they went out of business as well. And they owned a gun factory that, at that time, had been the oldest one in the continental United States,” Coop-Gonzalez continued.
He said that after watching the Youtube video, he wanted to prevent a lawsuit of this type in West Virginia.
“I want to see this bill go to other states,” Coop Gonzalez said. “As soon as we filed our bill, Montana copied our bill and they started running it. I don’t know what the status of their legislation is. Kentucky has shown interest in running this bill now, and I would like to see this go, eventually, to the federal level, and it all started in West Virginia.”
As of Friday, Gov. Morrisey has signed 84 bills into law.
