DOJ sues Virgin Islands over restrictive firearm laws

(CN) — The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Virgin Islands and its police department, claiming it is violating the Second Amendment by taking too long to process gun permit applications.

In the complaint, the department says the territory has “continued to obstruct and systematically deny law-abiding American citizens this fundamental right by systematically delaying the processing of applications and imposing unconstitutional conditions on the exercise of this constitutional right.”

It adds that the conduct of Virgin Islands Police Department Commissioner Mario Brooks “has rendered the constitutional right to keep and bear arms a virtual nullity within the United States Virgin Islands territory.”

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

According to the Justice Department, numerous applicants complained that the Virgin Islands Police Department is unreasonably delaying their gun permit applications and added “unreasonable conditions” prior to issuing licenses to possess and carry firearms.

These conditions include requiring applicants to install a gun safe that is either bolted to the floor or the wall of the applicant’s home, then undergo an inspection of their home, in order to obtain a gun permit.

Additionally, applicants must also be at least 21 years old, pass a background check, be fingerprinted and photographed and be of “good moral character.”

When reviewing applications, the Virgin Islands Police Department can conduct interviews with “character vouchers” who must opine that the applicant is “a fit and proper person to have a firearm.”

The Justice Department claims the law does not define or establish any specific standards for what constitutes “good moral character” but allows permits to be denied whenever a “proper reason exists to deny such application.”

It further argues that the Supreme Court has declared similar requirements as unconstitutional in District of Columbia v. Heller, where the justices held that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess firearms for self-defense.

As well as in the 2022 case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, where the justices struck down a New York law that required applicants to provide “proper cause” reasons for wanting to obtain a gun permit.

“This Civil Rights Division will protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.

“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," Dhillon added.

Each gun permit issued to a resident of the Virgin Islands is valid for three years and applies only to a specific firearm, and additional licenses must be obtained for each additional firearm that an individual wishes to possess. Applications may be denied if the police department deems the individual has “too many” firearms.

Possessing or carrying an unlicensed firearm in the territory is an offense subjecting an individual to a term of “imprisonment of not less than 10 years” and/or a fine “not less than $10,000 nor more than $15,000.”

The Virgin Islands’ restrictive gun ownership laws come amid its high rates of gun violence compared to the rest of the U.S.

However, in a 2022 report, Giffords, a gun violence advocacy group, found that one of the major driving factors of gun violence in both the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico is the trafficking of firearms from U.S. states to the territories.

While guns often flow from states with weaker laws into states with stronger laws, trafficking takes a particularly high toll on both territories, according to Giffords. Furthermore, in the Virgin Islands, possessors of firearms were twice as likely to be between the ages of 18 and 24 compared to the national average.

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