U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) authorities apparently take their cues from California and a few other Second Amendment outliers. This drew attention from the rejuvenated Department of Justice (DOJ), which recently amended its ongoing action against the island’s government.
The first federal complaint targeted the islands’ ridiculous barriers erected against acquiring firearms licenses–including requiring the installation of a home safe and agreeing to warrantless searches.
The updated effort against the territory’s gun control regime continues that theme and expands to include newly uncovered constitutional violations.
Even while being sued, USVI officials enacted more unlawful gun control
The DOJ noted that, while pursuing justice in the original case, it found a stack of Second Amendment violations going back years.
“Recently, the United States learned that VIPD’s pattern or practice of unlawful conduct goes back literally decades to at least 2004 when they began arbitrarily enforcing firearms restrictions with absolutely no statutory authority to do so,” the complaint reads.
Not only is the DOJ challenging the territory’s egregious licensing practices, but it now targets the blanket AR-15 ban and laws suppressing the right to own suppressors, lawful carry away from the home, and even a government registry of gun owners and their personal weapons.
DOJ is adding teeth to its duty to protect civil rights
This is a powerful legal stand that recent DOJ iterations would never have even considered. But the Bill of Rights is not a salad bar where officials can pick and choose which liberties law-abiding citizens may freely exercise, as Hawaii’s leadership recently learned.
Instead, “shall not be infringed” is the indisputable law of the land, and territories that benefit from their relationships with the U.S. are bound to uphold the Constitution in the same manner that states are required.
Allowing local authorities to trample on enumerated rights they disagree with is a clear pathway to lawlessness and anarchy. This new and improved DOJ continues to show that such oppression of fundamental liberties will not go unchallenged.
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