If gun control was truly effective in reducing crime, the U.S. Virgin Islands would be one of the safest places in the nation. Instead, the U.S. territory, which has some of the most restrictive gun laws around, also has a homicide rate that’s even higher than Mexico.
The U.S. Virgin Island’s gun laws are extensive. A permit is required to purchase both firearms and ammunition, and you can be sentenced to seven years in prison for possessing a single round of ammunition without a valid permit. You must also be at least 21 before you can apply for a license. The territory bans so-called assault weapons and “large capacity” magazines, doesn’t recognize carry permits from any U.S. state (and at the moment, doesn’t allow for non-residents to apply for a carry license either).
Despite all those laws, the newspaper Virgin Islands Consortium recently declared the territory “remains one of the most homicide-plagued places on earth.”
The rate has hovered near or above 50 per 100 000 — on par with Jamaica and four times higher than notoriously violent Mexico — for much of the last 20 years, according to data from Macrotrends homicide-rate series 1997-2025, VIPD statements for 2010 record and 2022-23 counts, CDC FastStats U.S. homicide rate 2022, and UNODC & World Population Review global and country homicide rankings 2022.
So far for 2025, the USVI has experienced 22 homicides, 11 on St. Croix, 9 on St. Thomas and 2 on St. John, putting the territory on pace for another record year.
50 homicides per 100,000 people is closer to twice Mexico’s homicide rate, not four times higher, but it’s still the highest homicide rate for any U.S. state or territory. It’s also about ten times higher than the overall homicide rate for the United States.
Like many Democrat-controlled locales, the U.S. Virgin Islands has established an Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The office, which has been in place since 2019, clearly hasn’t been successful in preventing much gun violence, and when executive director Antonio Emmanuel appeared before a legislative panel this week to talk about the high homicide rate he didn’t have much of an answer.
Mr. Emmanuel did not think that there was anything necessarily wrong with current policy. “I think that we have folks that are committing crimes, some by emotional outbursts, some because they have an ax to grind with somebody else. These are retaliatory homicides,” he explained. Random homicides, he said, are not common. “People have issues with somebody else, or one person claims he got disrespected, or we have some domestic violence issues,” he added. According to Mr. Emmanuel, there are many “system issues” that “we just can’t seem to wrap our hands around.”
“We have a community that is clearly angry, clearly frustrated, and we try to come up with ways to try to heal this community the best we can,” Mr. Emmanuel declared. “The homicides that we’re having now, like I said, they’re directed, they’re personal attacks on each other and that’s disturbing.” The Office of Gun Violence Prevention is attempting to educate the community on de-escalation and conflict resolution. “Unfortunately, some of the older perpetrators of the crime aren’t getting that information,” Mr. Emmanuel admitted.
No offense to Emmanuel, but why are any of these programs necessary? Shouldn’t the restrictive gun laws that have been on the books for decades have been successful at stopping bad actors from acquiring guns and using them in crimes? And if these laws aren’t doing anything to reduce violent crime, then why are they still in place?
USVI Gov. Albert Bryan, Jr. has some thoughts on that. Earlier this year, when the governor was asked about gun smuggling into the territory, the Democrat offered up a surprising and refreshing take: quit making it so difficult to legally get a gun.
“What happens is – when you tell somebody no, the temptation is more,” Governor Bryan argued, referring to the territory’s strict gun ownership regulations. “The states with the toughest gun laws get the highest homicide rates,” he declared.
“I think we should move to a place where we open gun ranges that are legal and we make it easier for people to license and carry firearms,” Governor Bryan stated. He argued that the percentage of Virgin Islanders who carry unregistered weapons for reasons of ill-intent is very small, while the majority of residents carry firearms because “they’re trying to protect themselves, or feel protected.”
Governor Bryan says the current restrictive regime only serves to criminalize many young Virgin Islanders seeking to exercise their second amendment rights. He told a story about a man with no previous criminal record, who was jailed for 15 years without parole after pleading guilty to gun and ammunition charges. “They told him he’d probably get three years for the possession…where is the justice in that?” Governor Bryan asked. “We setting up our young people to fail.”
Though Bryan made those comments in March, lawmakers have taken no steps to actually implement the reforms he discussed.
Could the governor spearhead these efforts himself? Possibly. Bryan has issued at least one executive order related to the Office of Gun Violence Prevention; an edict establishing an advisory council mean to “assist in implementing programs and strategies to reduce violence in the Territory.” While the council can’t pass legislation, it could come up with a plan to expand range access and training opportunities while working to end the stigma of lawful gun ownership. It could even be tasked with doing a deep dive into the current laws and coming up with reforms that would cut away red tape and make it easier for both residents and visitors to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
The status quo isn’t working to keep Virgin Islanders safe, though it’s doing a bang up job of keeping them from exercising their right to keep and bear arms. Criminals aren’t submitting character references and notarized affidavits to the VIPD so they can get a permit to purchase a gun and ammunition, nor are they forking over the hundreds of dollars it takes to apply for a permit. The head of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention says there are systemic issues that the territory can’t wrap its collective hands around, and I’d say one of those issues is the lack of respect for the Second Amendment on the part of lawmakers and other elected officials. Helping to grow a culture of responsible gun ownership won’t be easy, and it’s not a quick fix. But Bryan is right that the territory’s gun laws have been a failure, and it’s high time something is finally done about it.
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