Look, I've seen some sketchy gun laws in my time behind the counter, but what the U.S. Virgin Islands has been pulling takes the cake — and it's not even close.
The Department of Justice just dropped a bombshell in their lawsuit against the territorial government. Turns out, the Virgin Islands Police Department has been enforcing the federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 for over TWO DECADES after it expired in 2004. That's right — a law that stopped existing almost 22 years ago.
The federal ban was only supposed to last 10 years. It sunset on September 13, 2004. But according to the DOJ, VIPD kept restricting what guns Virgin Islanders could own as if the law was still on the books. No federal statute. No territorial law. Nothing. Just a bunch of bureaucrats deciding they'd keep enforcing something that didn't exist anymore.
How does that even happen? I'll tell you how — anti-gun zealotry run amok. They liked the restrictions, so they just... kept applying them. Pretended the law was still good. And nobody at the federal level caught it until now.
But wait, there's more. The original complaint already hit them for other bs — making people jump through ridiculous hoops like installing gun safes, home inspections, and forcing applicants to justify why they needed to carry a firearm, even AFTER the Bruen decision supposedly established that self-defense is a constitutional right.
The DOJ says this misconduct goes back to at least 2004. That's over 20 years of violating people's Second Amendment rights based on a law that literally wasn't law anymore.
This is why we can't trust government officials with any degree of gun control authority. Left to their own devices, they'll invent powers they don't have and enforce restrictions that don't exist. The difference between malice and incompetence doesn't matter when your rights get trampled either way.
The DOJ is now seeking to shut this down, and honestly, anyone who had their firearms restricted or denied because of these phantom regulations deserves answers — and probably a nice payout from the territory.
Bottom line: If you're ever thinking about moving to or visiting the US Virgin Islands, maybe leave your guns at home. And keep them locked up tight — not for safety, but for the peace of mind that comes from knowing the government there isn't making up laws as they go.