SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A Second Amendment conflict has erupted between the federal government and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The U.S. government on Tuesday sued U.S. territories, police departments and Police Chief Mario Brooks, accusing them of obstructing and systematically denying U.S. citizens the right to own and bear firearms.
The U.S. Virgin Islands requires applicants to demonstrate “a well-founded fear of death or serious injury to their person or property” and to have “two credible persons” attest to their need for a firearm. Local law also requires someone to have “good moral character” to obtain a gun license, which is valid for up to three years and applies to a single weapon.
The lawsuit alleges that no specific standards were set or defined for the character requirements. It also claims the defendants “routinely” refused to issue licenses to people who were “deemed to be unfit persons” by law by the region’s police chief.
People on U.S. soil must also “subject to intrusive and warrantless home searches” as a condition of obtaining a firearms license, the lawsuit states. If applicants deny home inspections, which take “several months to a year to schedule and complete,” the government will not process their requests, the lawsuit said.
It also states that the Police Department “will deny firearms licenses to otherwise qualified applicants if it determines that an applicant possesses ‘too many’ firearms.”
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that the U.S. Virgin Islands required applicants to “unnecessarily spend money to install safes” and bolt them to the floors or walls of their homes.
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of flouting “binding Supreme Court precedent and obstructing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens.”
It states that these citizens “have the fundamental right to possess firearms in their homes” and to openly carry handguns for the purpose of immediate self-defense.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It asks a judge to find the defendants violated the Second Amendment and seeks an injunction barring them from enforcing local laws related to the issuance of firearms licenses.
The U.S. Virgin Islands government said in a statement late Tuesday that it was reviewing the lawsuit and taking the allegations seriously.
It noted that the administrations of Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. and Lt. Gov. Tregenza A. Roach are “committed to protecting constitutional rights while maintaining public safety.”
The statement said the charges would be resolved in court and no further comment would be made.
The lawsuit comes amid a push by President Donald Trump’s administration to expand gun rights. Last year, Trump claimed that the Second Amendment was “under siege” and called himself “a gun owner’s best friend in the White House.”
