Published July 30, 2026 at 11:31 AM ET · Updated July 30, 2026 at 2:50 PM ET
DOJ flags ongoing Virgin Islands police Second Amendment violations
1 independent outlets are covering this story. Verification: Watching — single-source — not yet independently corroborated. Patriot Watch links to original reporting; we don't republish it.
The Department of Justice has identified ongoing Second Amendment violations by police in the Virgin Islands. The DOJ flagged the issue as part of its review of local law enforcement practices.
Patriot Watch first flagged this story 4 hr ago, when Bearing Arms reported it. So far this remains a single-source report. The most recent report came 4 hr ago from Bearing Arms. Verification tier: Watching — single-source — not yet independently corroborated.
⚖ The Constitutional Angle
McDonald v. City of Chicago bound the states to the Second Amendment through the Fourteenth Amendment, so Virgin Islands police must honor it. Under New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, restrictions on conduct the Amendment covers survive only if justified by consistency with the Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. Practices lacking that justification are unconstitutional.
McDonald v. City of Chicago, Illinois 561 U.S. 742 (2010)
Vote: 5-4 · Opinion: Alito
The Second Amendment right recognized in Heller is fully applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. A four-Justice plurality incorporated the right via the Due Process Clause as fundamental to the Nation's scheme of ordered liberty and deeply rooted in its history and tradition; Justice Thomas supplied the fifth vote via the Privileges or Immunities Clause. The Seventh Circuit's judgment upholding Chicago's and Oak Park's handgun bans was reversed and remanded.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Kevin P. Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police 597 U.S. 1 (2022)
Vote: 6-3 · Opinion: Thomas
New York's requirement that applicants demonstrate 'proper cause' — a special need for self-protection distinguishable from the general community — to obtain an unrestricted public-carry license violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public. The Court held the Second Amendment protects a right to carry handguns publicly for self-defense, and rejected the two-step means-end framework lower courts had applied after Heller.
Precedent facts from the PW Law Library — primary-source verified & independently audited
