The US Virgin Islands is one of the most anti-gun territories in the United States. They seem to have no respect for gun rights, with might not be relevant if they weren’t a US territory and thus subject to the Constitution. I’m not sure the lawmakers there really seem to understand that, though, with their history of gun-grabbing, but it doesn’t make it any less true.
And they’re at it again, this time with a bill containing numerous provisions, including a “vampire rule.”
That’s led the Second Amendment Foundation to tell them they really should back off on that.
Via a press release:
The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) today submitted formal testimony to the 36th Legislature of the United States Virgin Islands opposing Bill No. 36-0144, which would adopt expansive gun control laws in the territory.
SAF advises the Virgin Islands legislature to adopt a wait-and-see approach given that multiple pending cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals will directly impact the constitutionality of many of the bill’s provisions.
In a letter to Senate President Milton E. Potter, SAF highlighted that the amendment contains numerous Second Amendment violations – including restrictions on carry in places where such limits are impermissible, bans on common arms in violation of Heller, and exorbitant fees that effectively tax the exercise of a constitutional right – but emphasized a practical reason for delay.
“Many of the very laws that the bill would enact are already awaiting court rulings that would be binding on the Virgin Islands,” SAF wrote in the letter. “There is no reason for taxpayers to incur the expense of potential lawsuits, especially at a time when the Virgin Islands are already under federal scrutiny for related issues. These questions are all about to be answered in other cases.”
The letter specifically notes that the amendment’s “vampire rule” restricting carry on private property open to the public without affirmative permission is set to be decided by the Supreme Court as soon as this week in Wolford v. Lopez. It also flags en banc Third Circuit cases addressing “assault weapon” and magazine bans and sensitive-places restrictions (including SAF’s case Koons v. Attorney General of New Jersey) – all of which involve issues directly implicated by the Virgin Islands legislation.
SAF offered to provide detailed substantive arguments on each constitutional defect if senators are interested but stressed that the pending litigation alone warrants pausing the bill rather than rushing it into law only to face likely invalidation while saddling taxpayers with unnecessary legal bills.
To be clear, everything in the bill is unconstitutional, but even if you don’t accept that yourself, the fact that it’s currently under consideration by the US Supreme Court should be enough reason alone to hold off at a minimum. What’s the point in passing a bill that will just be invalidated by the Court, possibly just after it takes effect?
Delaying is the least that should be done.
Ideally, they’d scrap everything and recognize that people still have their Second Amendment rights. Its status as a territory doesn’t exclude it from the Constitution, after all, and that includes the Second Amendment. Backing off entirely because gun rights matter should be what happens, as well as a decision to never revisit any of this stupidity.
It’s just a damn shame that not only do I expect officials there to ignore the Second Amendment Foundation here, but to keep doubling down at every opportunity they can conceive. Honestly, if they’d just say they don’t like the Constitution and call for independence, I’d probably have more respect for some of these people, but they want to have the benefits of being Americans while stomping on the rights of everyone else.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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