U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan's new executive order banning firearms from all government buildings "misses the mark," according to a local pro-gun group.
Virgin Islands Safe Gun Owners founder Kosei Ohno blasted Bryan's new edict, arguing the governor "has not made government buildings safer; he has made law-abiding citizens more vulnerable."
A paper ban without secured entrances, metal detectors, or meaningful screening is not public safety. It is public vulnerability — and it is not common sense, practical, or responsible.”
Bryan's executive order makes virtually every structure owned or leased by the USVI a "sensitive place" where lawful carry is prohibited, but as Ohno points out, the vast majority of these buildings do not have any kind of security measures in place to protect employees and visitors; no secured entrances guarded by armed security, no metal detectors, and no screening whatsoever.
VISGO also notes that federal, territorial, and local government accounts for roughly one-third of total non-farm employment in the USVI, more than double the national share.
Because so many residents work in, visit, or do business with government offices, an overbroad ban reaches far beyond a few facilities and affects workers, contractors, licensees, business owners, and residents who must enter government buildings to work, meet, renew licenses, or access public services.
The USVI is already facing a lawsuit filed by the DOJ's Civil Rights Division that, among other things, alleges the Virgin Islands Police Department has been "systematically delaying the processing of [concealed carry] applications and imposing unconstitutional conditions on the exercise of this constitutional right."
Bryan's move resembles what we saw from anti-gun states like New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Hawaii after the Supreme Court struck down "may issue" carry schemes in Bruen. When these states lost the ability to deny most residents a permission slip to bear arms in public, they responded by imposing broad new restrictions on where folks with permits could carry; restrictions that were never in place when only a chosen few were able to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Bryan's order comes with a twist, though. Concealed carry licensees can request a waiver from the VIPD that would allow them to carry in these "sensitive places," but as VISGO notes, those waivers are essentially "may issue" in nature, and depend on the arbitrary decisions of the USVI Attorney General and Police Commissioner.
Ohno says that's a huge problem, and an invitation to more litigation.
“Arbitrary discretion by the Police Commissioner is one reason the Government is now facing a federal civil-rights lawsuit. The Administration should be fixing that problem, not recreating it through another discretionary waiver process.”
Virgin Islands Safe Gun Owners is calling on Bryan to scrap his executive order and replace it with a plan that respects the Second Amendment rights of Virgin Islanders.
That plan starts with an individualized security assessment for every building owned or leased by the government to determine which locations are truly "sensitive" in nature and require controlled access. Those locations should have additional security measures in place, such as secured entrances, magnetometers, and trained personnel.
VISGO is also calling for "clear, objective, non-discretionary standards for any restriction and any waiver process," as well as an impact analysis documenting the number of Virgin Island residents and visitors who will be impacted by the carry ban. I'd be shocked if Bryan ever agrees to that, since it's antithetical to what he's trying to do. The whole point is to let the territory decide on a case-by-case basis who is special enough to carry a firearm in a government building. Clear, objective standards prevent discrimination, when Bryan is trying to enshrine it into policy.
Finally, Ohno and his fellow 2A supporters want to see a "federal-litigation compliance plan explaining how the Order fixes, rather than repeats, the arbitrary discretion problems raised by the U.S. DOJ lawsuit."
If the Civil Rights Division tries to amend its complaint to cover the governor's new executive order (as I hope it does), Bryan is going to have to provide that information to DOJ anyway, so he might as well come up with his rationale now.
We'll be discussing Bryan's new "gun-free zones" as well as the ongoing efforts in the territory to impose a number of other new gun control measures on Thursday's Bearing Arms Cam & Company, and I hope you'll tune in to the conversation with VISGO's Kosei Ohno.
