A federal appeals court ruling could wipe out a law the U.S. Virgin Islands passed in June — a win for gun owners in the tropical paradise who want to own modern semiautomatic firearms.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit struck down New Jersey’s ban on so-called “assault weapons” Friday, expanding a lower-court ruling to include many modern semiautomatic rifles and standard capacity magazines. The ruling will also likely lead to a similar ban passed by the Virgin Islands in June also being tossed out as the Caribbean territory is under the Third Circuit’s jurisdiction, Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) Director of Legal Research and Education Konstadinos Moros wrote in a Friday post to X.
“The Virgin Islands subplot became funnier,” Moros said. “They JUST passed an AWB [assault weapons ban], after I warned them in my testimony that the Third Circuit was about to rule on this issue so they should just wait, as they fall within that circuit. They ignored me. Now eat shit.”
Moros issued the warnings in testimony during a June 12 hearing held by the Virgin Islands Territorial Senate, while SAF sent a letter on June 10 noting that the Cheeseman case and the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in Wolford v. Lopez could have effects on the proposed ban. The Supreme Court released the Wolford ruling on June 25, throwing out the so-called “Vampire Rule” imposed by a Hawaii law passed in 2023.
The rule prohibited gun owners with concealed-carry permits to enter businesses with firearms without first being invited.
The U.S. territory’s strict firearms laws have drawn increased scrutiny during the second Trump administration. In December 2025, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon announced litigation against the territorial Police Department, accusing the agency of imposing “unreasonable conditions” and using a “good cause” standard the Supreme Court invalidated in the June 2022 Bruen decision involving New York’s discretionary issue of concealed carry permits.
“The territory’s firearms licensing laws and practices are inconsistent with the Second Amendment,” U.S. Attorney Adam Sleeper for the District of the U.S. Virgin Islands said in the release. “This lawsuit seeks to uphold the rights of law-abiding citizens to bear arms in the U.S. Virgin Islands.”
Democratic Virgin Islands Territorial Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. and Attorney General Gordon Campbell Rhea did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The decision also imperils a similar law in Delaware that then-Democratic Gov. John Carney signed in June 2022, since Delaware is also covered by the Third Circuit. Democratic Delaware Gov. Matthew Meyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
(DCNF)
