DOJ Sues Virgin Islands Police Over its Purposeful Gun Permit Delays

From [HERE] The Department of Justice has slammed another police agency for dragging its feet on issuing gun permits, this time in the Virgin Islands, declaring in a 12-page federal complaint, “Despite the Supreme Court’s unequivocal and repeated endorsement of an individual right to keep and bear arms…the 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.”

Named as defendants in the action are the government of the Virgin Islands, the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD) and Police Commissioner Mario Brooks, in his official capacity.

In a prepared statement announcing the lawsuit, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said, “This Civil Rights Division will protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. The newly-established Second Amendment Section filed this lawsuit to bring the Virgin Islands Police Department back into legal compliance by ensuring that applicants receive timely decisions without unconstitutional obstruction.”

Earlier, the DOJ sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for essentially the same thing: deliberately delaying the issuance of carry licenses, sometimes for more than a year. This new action suggests the new 2A Section will be focusing attention on the permit processes, although gun rights organizations, such as the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, have recommended the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division take on some bigger issues, such as state laws which do, or will, require permits-to-purchase before law-abiding citizens can exercise their right to buy and own a firearm.

“Nowhere in this country should a citizen be forced to get permission from a government entity in order to exercise a fundamental right protected by the U.S. Constitution and delineated in nearly all state constitutions,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Nobody needs government permission to exercise a right.”

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Adam Sleeper, who filed the federal complaint in U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas and St. John Division, asserted, “The territory’s firearms licensing laws and practices are 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.” [MORE]