Virgin Islands Police Sued over Gun Permit Delays

The Division of Justice has slammed one other police company for dragging its ft on issuing gun permits, this time within the Virgin Islands, declaring in a 12-page federal grievance, “Regardless of the Supreme Court docket’s unequivocal and repeated endorsement of a person proper to maintain and bear arms…the VI Defendants have continued to impede and systematically deny law-abiding Americans this basic proper by systematically delaying the processing of purposes and imposing unconstitutional circumstances on the train of this constitutional proper.”

Named as defendants within the motion are the federal government of the Virgin Islands, the Virgin Islands Police Division (VIPD) and Police Commissioner Mario Brooks, in his official capability.

In a ready assertion asserting the lawsuit, Assistant Legal professional Basic Harmeet Dhillon stated, “This Civil Rights Division will defend the Second Modification rights of law-abiding residents. The newly-established Second Modification Part filed this lawsuit to carry the Virgin Islands Police Division again into authorized compliance by guaranteeing that candidates obtain well timed choices with out unconstitutional obstruction.”

Earlier, the DOJ sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division for basically the identical factor: intentionally delaying the issuance of carry licenses, generally for greater than a yr. This new motion suggests the brand new 2A Part can be focusing consideration on the allow processes, though gun rights organizations, such because the Residents Committee for the Proper to Maintain and Bear Arms, have beneficial the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division tackle some greater points, corresponding to state legal guidelines which do, or will, require permits-to-purchase earlier than law-abiding residents can train their proper to purchase and personal a firearm.

“Nowhere on this nation ought to a citizen be compelled to get permission from a authorities entity with a purpose to train a basic proper protected by the U.S. Structure and delineated in practically all state constitutions,” stated CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “No person wants authorities permission to train a proper.”

In a press release, U.S. Legal professional Adam Sleeper, who filed the federal grievance in U.S. District Court docket of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas and St. John Division, asserted, “The territory’s firearms licensing legal guidelines and practices are inconsistent with the Second Modification. This lawsuit seeks to uphold the rights of law-abiding residents to bear arms within the U.S. Virgin Islands.”

The motion presents a substantial distinction with how the earlier administration seen the Second Modification, and it undoubtedly counters remarks by anti-gun New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who tried to use the mass capturing in Australia on Sunday and the incident at Brown College on Saturday to push for extra restrictions right here within the U.S.

🚨BREAKING: Chuck Schumer is looking on the U.S. to undertake stricter gun legal guidelines, following Australia’s instance, after the current assaults.

“If Australia can discover braveness to behave. Congress ought to definitely discover the need to behave!”

This man is insane.pic.twitter.com/z42btwKNFZ

— Jack (@jackunheard) December 15, 2025

The federal grievance in opposition to the Virgin Island, additionally signed by Dhillon, famous, “VIPD and Defendant Brooks proceed to implement Virgin Islands legal guidelines practically equivalent to these struck down by the Supreme Court docket in Bruen. VI Defendants require that candidates undergo intrusive and warrantless house searches as a situation of acquiring a gun allow. They demand that candidates unnecessarily spend cash to put in a protected and additional require the protected to be bolted both to the ground or wall of applicant’s house as a situation of granting a allow, though in Heller, the Supreme Court docket held {that a} comparable requirement is unconstitutional.”

As detailed within the lawsuit, the applying course of features a obligatory inspection of the applicant’s house, though the police division “doesn’t set up possible explanation for a authorized violation for these searches.”

“If the applicant doesn’t consent to a house inspection, VIPD refuses to course of the applying, which operates as a de facto denial,” the lawsuit alleges.

“Previous to the house inspection, and absent any authorized authority, VIPD requires the applicant to put in a protected that’s completely bolted to the house’s wall or flooring the place a licensed firearm is to be saved,” the grievance provides.

As well as, the police division interviews “character vouchers” who should say the applicant is “a match and correct particular person to have a firearm.” This basically circumstances an individual’s proper to train his/her Second Modification rights on the advice of others.

Finally, the lawsuit alleges, “The systematic apply by all three VI Defendants of requiring candidates to consent to unreasonable warrantless searches of their houses and to spend cash to buy and set up safes has disadvantaged, and continues to deprive, law-abiding residents who utilized for a brand new license to own or carry a firearm of their Second Modification rights…”

In asserting the lawsuit, DOJ famous, “Complaints have poured in from residents exhibiting unconstitutional delays and necessities, together with police conducting unconstitutionally unreasonable house searches — the very kind of necessities the U.S. Supreme Court docket finds abusive in allowing schemes.”

Whereas this can be much less sensational than cracking down on a state statute mandating a permit-to-purchase scheme or legal guidelines prohibiting hid carry in so-called “delicate locations,” it’s a begin. The case of Wolford v. Lopez, now earlier than the Supreme Court docket, would possibly deal with that downside. Oral arguments are scheduled for Jan. 20, 2026.

About Dave Workman

Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, creator of a number of books on the Proper to Maintain & Bear Arms, and previously an NRA-certified firearms teacher.