When the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) announced its Civil Rights Division would take up Second Amendment infringements, many jurisdictions were on notice. Now the DOJ Civil Rights Division has announced it filed a complaint against the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD).
The DOJ alleges that the U.S. territory has “unreasonable delays and conditions on lawful gun owners’ rights.” The complaint states that the VIPD has created an “unconstitutional permitting process in violation of the Second Amendment.”
The DOJ cites numerous complaints from applicants saying the VIPD is unreasonably delaying their gun-permit applications as well as mandating unreasonable conditions, including “bolted-in gun safes,” before they will issue gun licenses.
Also, the “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,” says the DOJ Civil Rights Division.
“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.”
“The territory’s firearms licensing laws and practices are inconsistent with the Second Amendment,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Sleeper 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.”
In the NRA-back Bruen decision in 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down “proper-cause” requirements that New York law enforcement used to deny handgun permits if the applicant did not provide subjective “proper-cause” reasons as to why the individual needed a handgun permit. The DOJ is now asserting that the U.S. Virgin Islands is disregarding this decision.
A press release from the Trump administration’s DOJ on this complaint also asks: “If you are a current or prospective gun owner and believe your gun permit application is subject to unconstitutional delays or practices, please submit a complaint through justice.gov/crt/second-amendment-section.”
Oh my, how things have changed at the DOJ. We’ll keep you posted as the Civil Rights Division does its job.
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