CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A new law allowing specially trained medical professionals to accompany police SWAT teams and carry weapons is now in effect.
The legislative approved a bill in this year’s legislative session that was signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice. It permits “tactical medical professionals,” such EMTs, physicians and physician assistants, osteopaths, and nurses who have been trained and certified to carry a firearm while on duty with a law enforcement team.
The medical professionals will need to be trained in tactical combat casualty care and tactical emergency medical support to get approved to carry the guns. They will also have to then be certified by the Law Enforcement Professional Standards sub-committee of the Governor’s Committee on Crime, Delinquency and Corrections.
Law Enforcement Professional Standards Coordinator Jess Gundy said they will have a lot to cover during this training.
“We’re going to cover a variety of different things, weapon safety, weapon handling, marksmanship drills and qualifications, decision shooting with a simulator, and things like that, so it should be a good program once we get it completed,” Gundy told MetroNews.
He said the professional standards team has until January 2024 to get the training planned and underway.
The new legislation originated last year from a doctor who served with a SWAT team and said the idea behind it is not for the medical professionals to become law enforcement, but to simply use the training as a means to protect themselves. Gundy agreed the training could be useful for that specific purpose, as a means of self-defense.
“If, you know, you got these guys out here and they’re confronted with a threat then of course they will have a firearm available to them,” he said.
The law does not however, allow doctors or nurses to carry guns in hospitals or allow EMS workers to carry them while on duty.
Gundy said he feels good about how the training will soon go.
“I think it will be fine, I think it will be a good program eventually, the proper training is the key to it and I think once we get these guys trained up it will go just fine,” Gundy said.
The medical professionals will be protected from civil and criminal liability while working with law enforcement.
The new law went into effect last Wednesday.