Virgin Islands Lawmakers Trying to Make Life Difficult for Pro-Gun Advocates

In our country, both sides of any given debate are supposed to get a chance to speak. That way, lawmakers have a clear understanding from each side as to what a given bill might do and why they should or shouldn't support it. 

In truth, most lawmakers have their minds made up well before they get to speak, but the ability is still a key part of our legislative process, if for no other reason than to make sure elected officials are informed of the potential pitfalls so they can be held accountable if and when those pitfalls manifest.

Yet in the US Virgin Islands, lawmakers aren't interested in handling that process in a remotely fair way.

Last week, I wrote about how gun rights advocates were essentially shut out of a hearing on a horrendous anti-gun bill.

Now, it seems the shenanigans are continuing right along.

The day after members of the Virgin Islands Safe Gun Owners weren't permitted to speak, an email was sent inviting them to a hearing on a couple of amendments.

Jemarise Krigger, the executive assistant for Sen. Clifford Joseph, sent this to VISGO founder, Kosei Ohno:

Good day,

On behalf of Senator Clifford A. Joseph, Sr., Chair of the Committee on Homeland Security, Justice and Public Safety, please find enclosed the committee invite letter and Bill No. 36-0144 to provide 3 minutes of testimony, on October 17, 2025. We anticipate amendments in the nature of a substitute, as it is received, it will be shared. Please feel free to reach out to my Chief of Staff, Jamila Russell at 340-712-2259, if you have any questions. 

This was October 10th, a Friday, for a hearing on this coming Friday.

That's not a lot of time for anyone to examine amendments, make arrangements to be away from work, and then sit there to discuss an important issue. Especially since the invitation didn't include the amendments in question.

In other words, it seems this request is one in which Ohno and his fellow members would be going into blind, a point that Ohno brought up in his reply.

"Separately, in light of the fact that the October 9th Rules & Committee was cancelled based solely on the fact that significant amendments were going to be made to Bill 36-0144, my members and I believe it short changes the public to address a complex constitutional issue with only a few days' notice when the amendments have not yet made available to the public," he wrote. "Moreover, our counsel would need at least two-week notice to adequately research the issues so we could be properly informed.  Our members were accorded a minimum of two week notice for the October 9th Rules & Judicial Committee Hearing as this is not our full-time job and requires advanced planning.  It's also customary to provide two-week response time for any court proceedings in the United States."

Ohno, in the same email reply, brought up the current DOJ lawsuit over concealed carry permit delays against the LA County Sheriff's Department, arguing that his members have reported similar issues, and that he feels that the territory should evaluate their own problems there, the implication being that making it even harder to get a carry permit would be a disaster.

Which, of course, it would.

Honestly, the more I hear about what's going on in the Virgin Islands, the more of a trainwreck it appears to be. Just because they're not a state doesn't mean the Constitution doesn't apply to them. They're on the hook for the same preservation of rights the rest of the US is, and it seems some have forgotten that.

Then we have this thing about expecting people to agree to testify on amendments that no gun rights advocate has laid eyes on as of this morning, and what we have is a set of lawmakers trying to make it look like they're following the letter of the law while breaking the obvious spirit of it.

I also wouldn't be surprised to learn that gun control groups have the amendments already for examination, though I don't have any evidence of that being the case.

Still, this is not how a nation, a state, or a US territory is supposed to operate.

Lawmakers there need to do better.

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

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