US Virgin Islands faces second lawsuit over right to bear arms

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation are suing the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and its police commissioner as a fight over the Second Amendment deepens.

The nonprofits are asking a federal judge to allow nonresidents to apply for and be issued licenses to carry concealed handguns in the U.S. territory.

The lawsuit filed this week asserted that Florida resident Sean Dale Henry, a member of Gun Owners of America and supporter of Gun Owners Foundation, called the U.S. Virgin Islands’ police department multiple times to apply for such a license.

“Henry has been unable to get the USVI police to so much as pick up the telephone,” the lawsuit states. “The fact that the USVI police do not answer their phone makes (Henry’s) need to keep and bear arms for his own self-defense all the more vital.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. territory’s government did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

The lawsuit filed Monday notes that Henry plans to visit the U.S. Virgin Islands at least twice in upcoming months and seeks to bring a concealed gun for self-defense purposes.

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

It is the second time the U.S. Virgin Islands’ government and its police commissioner are sued over the Second Amendment.

In December, the U.S. Justice Department sued the U.S. territory, accusing it of obstructing and systematically denying American citizens the right to possess and carry guns. It cited local laws including that applicants must demonstrate “good reason to fear death or great injury to his person or property,” and have “two credible persons” vouch for their need of a firearm.

At the time, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ government said it was “committed to protecting constitutional rights while maintaining public safety.”

In a February court filing, the U.S. Virgin Islands accused the U.S. government of coming to court “with unclean hands” and of employing hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers it accused of depriving people of their “rights, privileges and immunities secured and protected by the 1st, 2nd, 4th , 5th and 14th amendments.”

“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,” the filing read.

That case is still making its way through court.