Contact Chairman Willis Now: SB1071 Could Restore Access to Modern Machine Guns, If It Gets a Hearing

Summary

West Virginia Senators Chris Rose and Zack Maynard introduced Senate Bill 1071 (SB1071), the Public Defense and Provisioning Act, on February 23, 2026. This bill aims to restore access to modern, select-fire machine guns for qualified, law-abiding citizens by creating a state-run Office of Public Defense to procure and sell these firearms, utilizing a loophole in the 1986 Hughes Amendment. The legislation is currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Tom Willis.