The federal Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Virgin Islands government, claiming the Virgin Islands Police Department and its Commissioner Mario Brooks were violating would-be lawful gun owners’ constitutional rights.
The suit, filed in Virgin Islands District Court, said VIPD caused abnormal delays in processing gun permits and required unreasonable conditions for permit approval. The suit claimed Virgin Islands firearms laws were almost identical to laws of other municipalities that had been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years.
“VI Defendants have 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,” according to the suit. “The conduct by the USVI, the VIPD, and defendant Brooks has rendered the constitutional right to keep and bear arms a virtual nullity within the United States Virgin Islands territory.”
Government House said they were aware of the suit and took the allegations seriously.
“The Bryan-Roach Administration is committed to protecting constitutional rights while maintaining public safety, and we will address the allegations through the legal process,” Government House spokesperson Richard Motta said in a written statement.
“The Department of Justice will evaluate its merits when served,” Motta said earlier in the day.
Reached by telephone, Kosei Ohno, founder of Virgin Islands Safe Gun Owners, applauded the suit. Ohno, owner of Crown Bay Marina, claimed in a similar lawsuit in March that the USVI government, VIPD, and Brooks had unfairly denied his application to renew a concealed carry permit for two handguns. He’d gotten the permit in 2018 and successfully renewed it in 2021.
In 2024, VIPD required Ohno, a Washington State resident, to acquire a Virgin Islands driver’s license before it would issue the permit, he claimed in the suit. Ohno, who has a concealed carry license from the state of Washington, argued he needed the weapons to defend himself from several recent attacks by former employees.
Ohno said VIPD had created an opaque set of capriciously applied policies for legal gun ownership.
“I discovered that they were operating outside of the rules of what was promulgated and what the laws of the Virgin Islands were in itself,” Ohno said. “That was the impetus for forming the Virgin Islands Safe Gun Owners. We’re law-abiding citizens who are not the ones who commit crime on the streets, yet the police were treating us in a way as criminals unfairly.”
Ohno said his group had more than 200 members, including people in both island districts. He said VISGO members are predominantly Virgin Islands residents.
The federal government’s suit originated from the Justice Department’s newly-created Second Amendment Section, which the Firearm Industry Trade Association described as a countermeasure to previous White House initiatives toward gun control.
“In other words, for the first time, the Civil Rights Division is directed to treat the Second Amendment as what it is: a civil right deserving active protection, not a second-class right that must constantly give way to regulatory experimentation,” the association cheered on its website.
Although President Donald Trump signed an executive order to specifically protect the right to bear arms in February, the special Justice Department initiative didn’t swing into action until December.
The push comes as the Trump administration took a dramatically different course on other civil rights, labeling many initiatives meant to reduce racial, gender, and disability inequities as unfair.
Adam Sleeper, the territory’s Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney, said the Virgin Islands’ firearms licensing laws and practices were inconsistent with the Second Amendment.
“This lawsuit seeks to uphold the rights of law-abiding citizens to bear arms in the U.S. Virgin Islands,” Sleeper said in a written statement.
Florida-based Second Amendment advocate Luis Valdes cheered the federal Justice Department’s announcement Tuesday. Valdes, Southeastern Director of Gun Owners of America, said it was a long time coming.
“Gun Owners of America is extremely proud that the Department of Justice is finally getting involved in the fight in the Virgin Islands,” Valdes said.
Rules restricting legal Virgin Islands gun ownership to Virgin Islands residents were unfair and threatened the 2004 Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, which allows qualified active and retired police officers to carry concealed weapons even when otherwise prohibited.
Ohno also took umbrage with the cost of registering a firearm in the Virgin Islands: $150 per gun.
“There’s nowhere in the country who charges by the gun. And that’ll be an example of — overly burdensome example — to try to penalize law-abiding citizens without making a difference in the underlying crime activity that occurs in the streets,” Ohno said. “We are not the problem.”
The Virgin Islands’ attempt to limit firearm ownership was a prime example of the tyranny that necessitated the Second Amendment, he said.
“It’s about self-defense—and that includes, in cases like this, protection against an overreaching government,” Ohno said.
— Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify some comments by Kosei Ohno, founder of Virgin Islands Safe Gun Owners, including that the organizations members are predominantly residents of the Virgin Islands.
