10-Year Sentence for Carrying in the USVI? GOA Just Filed Suit

Gun Owners of America just sued the U.S. Virgin Islands for running what may be the most unconstitutional gun scheme on American soil.

Filed July 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Virgin Islands, **Henry v. Brooks** names Police Commissioner Mario Brooks and the territorial government as defendants. The lead plaintiff is Florida resident Sean Dale Henry — a law-abiding gun owner whose state-issued carry permit means absolutely nothing the moment he steps off a plane in St. Thomas.

Here's the trap the USVI built: You must have a government-issued license to possess or carry a firearm. Nonresidents generally cannot apply for one. The territory honors zero out-of-state permits. Open carry is prohibited. Unauthorized possession carries a **ten-year mandatory minimum prison sentence**.

Read that again. Ten years. For carrying the same gun you carry legally at home.

"For the 99.975 percent of Americans who are not residents of the USVI, Second Amendment rights simply do not exist on the islands," the complaint states. That's not hyperbole — that's the plaintiffs doing the math on who actually qualifies under the territory's narrow carve-outs.

There is a hunting license exception — but it covers rifles and shotguns only. It does nothing for the ordinary American who wants to carry a handgun for self-defense while vacationing in a territory the federal government oversees.

GOA's Virgin Islands outreach director Luis Valdes was direct: "The Second Amendment doesn't end at the shoreline. Americans don't lose their constitutional rights simply because they travel to a U.S. territory."

He's right — and *Bruen* backs him up. The Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the right to bear arms in public for self-defense is constitutional bedrock. The USVI's response? It reportedly **repealed its reciprocity provisions after Bruen** rather than expand access. That's not compliance — that's defiance.

The constitutional question at the center of this case is clean: Can a U.S. territory strip Americans of a fundamental right the moment they cross the shoreline? Every honest reading of *Bruen* and *Heller* says no.

GOA and the Gun Owners Foundation are asking the federal courts to end what the complaint calls a "blatant violation" — and with the current judicial landscape, they have a real shot.

**Bottom line:** If you're planning a trip to the Virgin Islands and you carry legally at home, the USVI will treat you like a criminal. GOA is fighting to change that. Watch *Henry v. Brooks* — this one matters for every traveling gun owner in America.