West Virginia
Permanent URL for this collectionhttps://dspace.firearmsresearchcenter.org/id/frc0001/5759
West Virginia
This jurisdictional hub aggregates FRC holdings related to West Virginia. It supports research on the state’s firearms history, technology, law, policy, and culture from Virginia statehood partition (1863) to the present, with relevant antecedents in pre-1863 Virginia.
- Legal sources: statutes and session laws, administrative code, attorney general opinions, appellate decisions, and select municipal ordinances.
- Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, frontier, Civil War, mining and industrial records, law-enforcement collections, and oral histories tied to West Virginia people and places.
- Research outputs: technical reports, academic studies, training manuals, and curated datasets relevant to the state.
Cite the Firearms Research Center and the item’s handle/DOI when using materials. Rights and licensing vary by item.
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Item type:Item, An Ordinance Assessing Taxes for the City of Wheeling, in Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, April 7, 1856, at 2(1856)On every license to keep a pistol gallery, seventy-five dollars.Item type:Item, 1925 W. Va. Acts 25(1925)Prohibited unlicensed carrying of a pistol, dirk, Bowie knife, slungshot, razor, billy, metallic or other false knuckles, or any other dangerous or deadly weapon. Punishable by imprisonment for 6-12 months for the first offense, and for 1-5 years for subsequent offenses, and in either case, a fine of $50-200.Item type:Item, 1909 W. Va. Acts 59(1909)Ch. 2, art. 4, § 7: [T]o regulate or prohibit the keeping of gun powder and other combustible or dangerous articles[.]Item type:Item, 1909 W.Va. Acts 479-80(1909)Ch. 60, § 19: The carrying of any uncased gun in any of the fields or woods of this state, by any person not having the lawful right to hunt, pursue or kill game, birds or animals in such fields or woods shall, as to such person, other than the bona fide owner, or owners of such fields or woods, his or their child or children, tenant or tenants, lessee or lessees, be deemed prima facie evidence of a violation of this sectionItem type:Item, 1915 W. Va. Acts 404(1915)Reg. Sess., Municipal Charters, ch. 11, § 16, pt. 25: To regulate the keeping, handling and transportation of explosives and dangerous combustibles within the municipality; and to regulate or prohibit the use of fire crackers, sky rockets, toy pistols, air rifles or guns, within the said municipality.Item type:Item, 1925 W. Va. Acts 30-31(1925)Ch. 3, § 7(b): Prohibited publicly displaying for rent or sale any revolver, pistol, dirk, Bowie knife, slungshot, other dangerous weapon, machine gun, submachine gun, or high powered rifle. Requires dealers to keep a register. Prohibited selling, renting, giving, or lending any of these weapons to an unnaturalized person.Item type:Item, 1889 W. Va. Acts 86(1889)Other Militia Not to Parade, etc., ch. 24-Relating to the Militia, § 13: The West Virginia National Guard shall consist of not exceeding twenty companies of infantry, which divided into regiments, shall constitute the West Virginia National Guard, and it shall not be lawful for anybody [sic] of men whatsoever, other than the regularly organized National Guard or militia or the troops of the United States, to associate themselves together as a military company or organization, or to parade in public with arms, in any city or town in the state, without the license of the governor therefor, which may at any time be revoked, nor shall it be lawful for any city or town to raise or appropriate any money towards arming, equipping, uniforming, or in any way supporting or sustaining or providing drill rooms or armories, for any such bodies of men.Item type:Item, J. Nelson Wisner, Ordinances and By-Laws of the Corporation of Martinsburg 26 (1875)(1857)The ordinance prohibited storing more than 25 pounds of gunpowder or rock powder in any building without special permission from the town council. Violators were subject to a $5–$10 fine.Item type:Item, Code of West Virginia Comprising Legislation to the Year 1870, ch. 148, p. 692(1868)Prohibited habitually carrying concealed any pistol, dirk, Bowie-knife, or weapon of the like kind. Violators fined fifty dollars.Item type:Item, Wheeling Laws and Ordinances 204, 206 (1891)(1881)It shall be unlawful for any person to carry any slung shot, colt, or knucklers of lead, brass or other metal or material, or to carry about his person, hid from common observation, any pistol, dirk , bowie knife, or weapon of the like kind, without a permit in writing from the mayor so to do. It shall also be unlawful for any person or persons to sell or give away to a person not of age, any slung shot, colt, or knuckler or knucklers of lead, brass or other metal or material, or any pistol, dirk, bowie knife or weapon of the like kind."Item type:Item, 1891 W. Va. Code 915-16(1891)Ch. 148, § 7: If a person carry about his person any revolver or other pistol, dirk, bowie knife, razor, slung shot, billy, metallic or other false knuckles, or any other dangerous or deadly weapon of like kind or character, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and fined not less than twenty-five nor more than two hundred dollars, and may, at the discretion of the court, be confined in jail not less than one nor more than twelve months; and if any person shall sell or furnish any such weapon as is hereinbefore mentioned to a person whom he knows, or has reason, from his appearance or otherwise, to believe to be under the age of twenty-one years, he shall be punished as hereinbefore providedItem type:Item, W. Va. Code 703, ch. 153, § 3(8) (1870)(1870)Ch. 153, § 3(8): "If any person go armed with a deadly or dangerous weapon, without reasonable cause to fear violence to his person, family, or property, he may be required to give a recognizance, with the right of appeal, as before provided, and like proceedings shall be had on such appeal."Item type:Item, W. Va. Code ch. 148, § 7 (1870)(1870)Prohibited the habitual conceal carry of any pistol, dirk, Bowie-knife, or weapon of like kind. Violators fined fifty dollars, informants receiving half the fine.Item type:Item, W.Va. Acts 14, 24.(1899)Act of Feb 16, 1899, ch. 4, § 28: To regulate the keeping of gun powder and other inflammable or dangerous substances; to provide for the regular building of houses or other structuresItem type:Item, The Code of West Virginia: Comprising Legislation to the Year 1870, at 703, ch. 153, §8(1870)Prohibited any person going armed with a deadly or dangerous weapon, without reasonable cause to fear violence. Individuals accused may be required to post a surety.Item type:Item, 1905 W. Va. Acts 70(1905)Ch. 3, § 46: The council shall have power to pass ordinances prohibiting the firing of guns, crackers, roman candles, sky-rockets, or any other fireworks, or the throwing of fire balls, or the firing of any other combination of gunpowder or other combustible or dangerous material within the city. . .Item type:Item, J. Nelson Wisner, Ordinances and By-Laws of the Corporation of Martinsburg 25 (1875)(1857)Prohibited firing or discharging firearms or fireworks within the town or within 200 yards of its limits, except in specified circumstances. Violators faced a $1–$5 fine.Item type:Item, 1901 W. Va. Acts 197(1901)An Act to Amend and Re-Enact Sections Two and Thirteen of Chapter Sixty-Two of the Code of One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-Nine, ch. 89, § 1: No person shall shoot in the public road at any time, nor when shooting on the lands of another shall discharge any firearms on any lawn, pleasure ground or orchard or other ground which is directly appurtenant to or within gunshot of an occupied dwelling house. The penalty for violating this section shall be a fine of not less than five dollars nor more than twenty-five dollars, or imprisonment not more than twenty days, or both, at the discretion of the court, and pay the cost of the prosecution.Item type:Item, 1901 W. Va. Acts 314, 320-21(1901)Act of Jan. 24, 1901, ch. 144, § 18: To regulate the keeping of gun powder and other inflammable or dangerous substances; to provide in or near the city places of burial of the dead, and to regulate the interment thereinItem type:Item, 1890 W. Va. Acts 173(1890)Ch. 14: And it shall be unlawful for any person by the use of any swivel or pivot gun, or any other than the common shoulder gun, or by the aid of any push boat, or sneak boat, used for carrying such gun, to catch, kill, wound or destroy, or to pursue with such intent upon any of the waters, bogs . . . or any cover to which wild fowl resort within this State, any wild goose, wild duck or brant.Item type:Item, J. Nelson Wisner, Ordinances and By-Laws of the Corporation of Martinsburg 76 (1875)(1876)Prohibited operating a pistol gallery without a mayoral permit and required galleries to be sufficiently separated from residences to prevent noise nuisances. Violations were punishable by fines of $2–$30 and, for subsequent offenses, up to 30 days in jail.Item type:Item, 1882 W. Va. Code 897–98, ch. 148, §7 (1882)(1887)Prohibited the carry of any revolver or other pistol, dirk, Bowie-knife, razor, slung-shot, billy, metallic or other false knuckles, or any other dangerous or deadly weapon of like kind or character. Violators guilty of a misdemeanor, fined not less than twenty-five nor more than two hundred dollars.Item type:Item, 1882 W. Va. Acts 421-22(1882)Ch. 148, § 7: Prohibited the carrying of a pistol, dirk, Bowie knife, razor, slungshot, billy, metallic or other false knuckles, or any other dangerous or deadly weapon. Also prohibited selling any such weapon to a minor. Punishable by fine of $25-200 and imprisonment of 1-12 months.Item type:Item, 1882 W. Va. Acts 421-22(1882)Ch. 135, § 1: Prohibited the carrying of a pistol, dirk, Bowie knife, razor, slungshot, billy, metallic or other false knuckles, or any other dangerous or deadly weapon. Also prohibited selling any such weapon to a minor. Punishable by fine of $25-200 and imprisonment of 1-12 months.Item type:Item, W. Va. Code, ch. 153, §8 (1868)(1868)Required any person going armed with any dirk, dagger, sword, pistol, or other offensive and dangerous weapon to post a surety once a complaint was filed, having cause to fear an injury or breach of the peace. Appeals provided for the accused.