Gun Rights Groups Sue U.S. Virgin Islands over Concealed Carry Licenses

Gun Owners of America and the Gun Owners Foundation have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Virgin Islands government and its police commissioner. The legal action addresses the denial of Second Amendment rights to nonresidents seeking to carry concealed handguns.

The lawsuit requests a federal judge allow nonresidents to apply for concealed carry licenses in the U.S. territory. This follows attempts by Florida resident Sean Dale Henry to obtain such a license. Henry, a member of Gun Owners of America, consistently failed to contact the Virgin Islands police department by phone.

Henry has been unable to get the USVI police to so much as pick up the telephone, the lawsuit states, highlighting the need for self-defense rights.

The U.S. territory’s government did not immediately comment on the lawsuit. Henry plans two visits to the Virgin Islands in the coming months and wants to carry a concealed weapon for personal protection.

The Second Amendment doesn’t end at the shoreline, said Luis Valdes, outreach director for Gun Owners of America in the Virgin Islands. Americans don’t lose their constitutional rights simply because they travel to a U.S. territory.

This is the second lawsuit concerning gun rights against the Virgin Islands. In December, the U.S. Justice Department accused the territory of obstructing citizens’ rights to possess and carry firearms. Local laws require applicants to demonstrate a considerable fear of danger and have two credible witnesses support their application.

At the time, the Virgin Islands government expressed its commitment to balancing constitutional rights with public safety. In February, it accused the U.S. of using hundreds of thousands of officers to violate citizens’ rights, questioning the integrity of the U.S.’s intervention.

The United States of America cannot come to the court with unclean hands and seek to enjoin others while engaging in such blatant, violative, and abusive patterns and practices itself, read the court filing. The case is ongoing.