DOJ Sues Virgin Islands Over Gun Permit Delays, Bruen Violations

We’ve reported recently on how President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has been a good news/bad news proposition for America’s gun owners. On one hand, the DOJ backed a challenge to New Jersey’s ban on so-called “assault weapons,” but then turned around and tried to limit a recent ruling that the Post Office gun ban is unconstitutional.

Now, more good news. On December 16, the DOJ filed a complaint against the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD) alleging that the territory’s unreasonable delays and conditions on lawful gun owners’ rights create an unconstitutional permitting process in violation of the Second Amendment. The lawsuit is the first action taken by the DOJ’s new Second Amendment Section.

According to a DOJ press release, numerous applicants have complained that VIPD is unreasonably delaying their gun permit application decisions and added unreasonable conditions, including bolted-in gun safes, prior to issuing gun licenses. Additionally, VIPD continues to enforce a proper cause regulation nearly identical to the law that the U.S. Supreme Court previously struck down in another case years ago.

“This Civil Rights Division will protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The newly-established Second Amendment Section filed this lawsuit to bring the Virgin Islands Police Department back into legal compliance by ensuring that applicants receive timely decisions without unconstitutional obstruction.”

In the 2022 Bruen ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a regulation it labeled “proper cause,” which New York law enforcement used to deny gun permits if the applicant did not provide “proper cause” reasons for the gun permit. That case is the established law of the land, including the territory of the Virgin Islands. However, the Virgin Islands continues to maintain and enforce a law nearly identical to the overturned law.

“Government may not predicate the exercise of any constitutional right, including a Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, upon the citizen’s convincing government officials that he or she has “some special need” to exercise the right in question,” the complaint stated. “The USVI statute that limits permits to carry concealed weapons only to individuals who ‘establish’ to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that they have a ‘proper reason for carrying a firearm,’ is indistinguishable from the New York statute held unconstitutional in Bruen.”

Additionally, complaints have poured in from residents showing unconstitutional delays and requirements, including police conducting unconstitutionally unreasonable home searches—the very type of requirements the U.S. Supreme Court finds abusive in permitting schemes.

“The territory’s firearms licensing laws and practices are inconsistent with the Second Amendment,” said Adam Sleeper, U.S. Attorney for the District of the U.S. Virgin Islands. “This lawsuit seeks to uphold the rights of law-abiding citizens to bear arms in the U.S. Virgin Islands.”

The lawsuit is filed in the U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands.

More on the Trump DOJ from thetruthaboutguns.com