U.S. Virgin Islands

The US Virgin Islands prohibits open carry of both long guns and handguns per the territory's Firearms and Air Guns Act; only concealed carry (shall-issue post-Bruen, though reportedly still restrictive in practice) is licensed. Sourced only from a secondary (Wikipedia) — I could not reach VIPD or an official VI statute site this session, so this needs independent confirmation before shipping.

Could not find a specific, citable U.S. Virgin Islands statute or official source addressing carry in places of worship; general secondary summaries cover licensing but are silent on this location. Marked unclear rather than guessed.

Could not reach any U.S. Virgin Islands government source (legis.vi.gov did not resolve) or find a reliable secondary source addressing carry-permit rules for restaurants/bars serving alcohol in the territory. No usable source found.

The U.S. Virgin Islands has 'a stringent and restrictive licensing process to purchase or carry a firearm' per available secondary summaries, but I could not find or confirm a primary V.I. Code citation addressing carry locations generally or vessels specifically, so this does not meet the bar for a yes/no/conditional answer.

An Executive Order of the Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands amending Executive Order 54-1961 adds 'Section 7. Firearms in Government Buildings,' which bars any officer, employee, contractor, visitor, or member of the public from carrying, possessing, or having a firearm or ammunition in any government building or interior office — expressly stating this 'applies regardless of whether the individual possesses an active license to conceal carry.' 'Government building' is defined to explicitly include courthouses, hearing rooms, and judicial chambers, as well as administrative offices and legislative facilities. The only exceptions are on-duty law-enforcement officers and a rare Attorney-General-plus-Police-Commissioner-approved individual waiver valid up to 12 months. (The order text itself shows differing 2025/2026 dates for the notice versus the signature; I am citing what the document states rather than resolving that discrepancy.)

23 V.I.C. § 453(i)(2) (Act No. 9113, signed June 24, 2026) bars carrying a firearm within a building of a public or private college or university only if conspicuous signage prohibiting firearms is posted on the property or the head of the institution communicates the prohibition to the licensee. The bar is written for the building; § 453(m) lets a licensee with a registration certificate for the firearm keep it unloaded in a lockbox, not readily accessible to the driver or passengers, in a private motor vehicle on the grounds, so long as it is not removed from the lockbox, displayed or carried into a building where carry is barred. This note covers § 453 only; other V.I. Code provisions and federal law apply separately. On Sept. 25, 2026 the Legislature voted to override the Governor's veto of Bill 36-0344, which would amend Act 9113; the bill's text is not posted on the Legislature's bill tracker and it may not yet be in effect, so confirm this rule and its section cite are unchanged before relying on it.

The U.S. Virgin Islands moved to 'shall issue' permitting after Bruen, but I could not find a reliable, specific source (official or otherwise) addressing the default rule for carry in an ordinary private business absent a posted sign. Flagging as unclear rather than guessing.

A specialized secondary CCW-law source (CCWCalc) cites 23 V.I.C. 453(i)(9)/(l)(9) for an opt-out rule ('may not carry ... where conspicuous signage ... is posted, or where the owner communicates the prohibition personally'), consistent with the national default. However, I could not confirm this from an official primary source — Justia's codified version of 23 V.I.C. 453 does not match this citation/subsection at all, and the Virgin Islands is in the middle of a major, actively litigated firearms-law overhaul (Governor Bryan's 'Second Amendment Rights and Public Safety Act,' proposed Feb. 2026, amid what reporting describes as a 'triple legal onslaught' of federal lawsuits from DOJ, GOA, and a private plaintiff). Given this flux and the inability to verify the current, in-force text, this is genuinely unresolved rather than a confident yes.

The U.S. Virgin Islands is a 'shall issue' jurisdiction post-Bruen per Wikipedia's 'Gun laws in the United States Virgin Islands,' but that source does not address airport carry, non-resident permit recognition, or a specific sensitive-places list, and I could not locate or access the Virgin Islands Code's firearms provisions directly in this session.

Carrying in a vehicle requires a Virgin Islands Firearms License and a registration certificate for the firearm (23 V.I.C. § 453(h)); the Act has no provision recognizing a license issued outside the Territory (see § 453(a), (c), (h)). Carry must be concealed, because § 453(i) bars carrying any firearm openly in public and bars carrying a longarm. Under § 489a(c), 'No person shall leave a firearm in a motor vehicle unless it is stored in a firearm lockbox,' and § 451(r) says a glove compartment, center console or vehicle trunk is not a lockbox. Section 453(k)(3) adds that a longarm transported by vehicle must be unloaded, with neither it nor any ammunition readily or directly accessible to the driver or passengers, and stored in a lockbox if the vehicle has no trunk. On the grounds of a government building, school, college or hospital, § 453(m) lets a licensee with a registration certificate for the firearm keep it unloaded in a lockbox in a private vehicle if it is not readily accessible to the driver or passengers and is not removed from the lockbox, displayed or carried into a building where carry is barred. All cites are to Act No. 9113 (signed June 24, 2026). On Sept. 25, 2026 the Legislature voted to override the Governor's veto of Bill 36-0344, which would amend it; that bill's text is not posted on the Legislature's bill tracker and it may not yet be in effect, so confirm these rules and cites are unchanged before relying on them.

23 V.I.C. § 453(i)(3) (Act No. 9113, signed June 24, 2026) bars carrying a firearm in 'the building of a hospital or mental health facility,' with no signage or notice condition; § 453(m) lets a licensee with a registration certificate for the firearm keep it unloaded in a lockbox, not readily accessible to the driver or passengers, in a private motor vehicle on the grounds, so long as it is not removed from the lockbox, displayed or carried into a building where carry is barred. Ordinary doctors' and dentists' offices are not named in § 453(i)(3); a private office is private property, where § 453(i)(9) bars carry only if conspicuous signage is posted or the owner communicates the prohibition personally. Section 453 does not define 'mental health facility'; the definition in § 454(b), written for that section, covers behavioral health facilities, mental hospitals, sanitariums, psychiatric facilities and other facilities that provide diagnoses for mental illness, including a psychiatric ward in a hospital, so whether a given outpatient mental-health office counts is unsettled. On Sept. 25, 2026 the Legislature voted to override the Governor's veto of Bill 36-0344, which would amend Act 9113; the bill's text is not posted on the Legislature's bill tracker and it may not yet be in effect, so confirm this rule and its section cite are unchanged before relying on it.

The U.S. Virgin Islands adopted a nominally shall-issue concealed-carry framework after Bruen, but permits reportedly remain hard to obtain in practice and open carry is prohibited outright. I could not reach the Virgin Islands Code (title 23) or any USVI government source describing vehicle carry rules or a prohibited-places list; my only source is a general Wikipedia summary that does not address this question. Genuinely unclear.

Not resolved from current official sources. Act 9113, signed June 24, 2026, rewrote the firearms licensing chapter; its § 457 concerns license expiration and renewal, not the older license-display provision cited by some summaries. An officer-notification rule cannot be inferred from that superseded section number. The Legislature subsequently reported an override of amendments in Bill 36-0344. Confirm the current requirements with VIPD before relying on a claim that no notification is required.

A federal lawsuit filed in mid-2026 in U.S. District Court for the Virgin Islands directly challenges the territory's firearm-licensing scheme for "prevent[ing] nonresidents from applying for licenses to carry concealed" — confirming current USVI law does not allow nonresident visitors to obtain a Virgin Islands carry license (23 V.I.C. § 454-455 licensing process is tied to VIPD/local process). Watch for a possible change if that litigation succeeds.

23 V.I.C. § 453(i)(2) (Act No. 9113, signed June 24, 2026) bars carrying a firearm within a building of a childcare facility, preschool, or public, private or parochial elementary or secondary school only if conspicuous signage prohibiting firearms is posted on the property or the head of the institution communicates the prohibition to the licensee. The bar is written for the building; § 453(m) lets a licensee with a registration certificate for the firearm keep it unloaded in a lockbox, not readily accessible to the driver or passengers, in a private motor vehicle on the grounds, so long as it is not removed from the lockbox, displayed or carried into a building where carry is barred. This note covers § 453 only; other V.I. Code provisions and federal law (for example 18 U.S.C. § 922(q)) apply separately. On Sept. 25, 2026 the Legislature voted to override the Governor's veto of Bill 36-0344, which would amend Act 9113; the bill's text is not posted on the Legislature's bill tracker and it may not yet be in effect, so confirm this rule and its section cite are unchanged before relying on it.

Could not find a reliable source addressing whether the U.S. Virgin Islands criminalizes ignoring a posted 'no firearms' sign at a private business, distinct from its (very restrictive, largely may-issue) general carry-permitting regime. Marked unclear.

The USVI licensing system (six license types: e.g., business/home protection, target shooting) is administered territory-wide by the VI Police Department, and post-Bruen the territory is described as functionally shall-issue. No evidence was found that individual islands (St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas) or their local governments can impose additional carry restrictions. However, no explicit statutory preemption clause was located this session — secondary-source (Wikipedia) corroboration only.

23 V.I.C. § 453(i)(5) (Act No. 9113, signed June 24, 2026) bars carrying a firearm at 'a polling place while voting is occurring or is authorized to occur,' with no signage or notice condition. On Sept. 25, 2026 the Legislature voted to override the Governor's veto of Bill 36-0344, which would amend Act 9113; the bill's text is not posted on the Legislature's bill tracker and it may not yet be in effect, so confirm this rule and its section cite are unchanged before relying on it.

Act 9113 (signed by Gov. Albert Bryan Jr., June 24, 2026) bans the manufacture, sale, transfer, and receipt of magazines holding more than 15 rounds, and bars sale/transfer of firearms 'manufactured to hold' more than 15 rounds. The U.S. DOJ filed a motion for a preliminary injunction on July 22, 2026, calling these provisions 'glaringly unconstitutional' in light of the Third Circuit's ANJRPC ruling; as of the latest reporting found (Aug. 19, 2026), no ruling on that motion had issued and the law remained formally in force.

RECENT and LOWER-CONFIDENCE: The Johns Hopkins-run National ERPO Resource Center identifies the U.S. Virgin Islands as having enacted an Extreme Risk Protection Order law effective January 20, 2025 (as of a February 2026 count of '22 states, DC, and the U.S. Virgin Islands'). This is a secondary/aggregator source only — despite repeated attempts, the underlying Virgin Islands Code citation, bill/act number, and exact petitioner eligibility could not be independently located and should be verified directly against V.I. Code before being treated as authoritative.

All firearms in the USVI require a purchase permit and registration with the VI Police Department (21+, fee, fingerprinting, demonstrated good moral character). Per secondary sourcing (citing the territory's Firearms and Air Guns Act), automatic firearms (machine guns) and short-barreled shotguns are prohibited outright, with no exception noted for federal NFA compliance — indirectly corroborated by 2024 VI legislative activity targeting machine-gun conversion devices. Despite extensive effort, the status of (a) suppressors/silencers specifically and (b) short-barreled RIFLES specifically could not be confirmed — the primary V.I. Code (tit. 23) was not accessible through any available tool. Given the territory's generally restrictive, permit-based regime for all firearms, those two sub-items are marked unclear rather than guessed.

The Third Circuit's 2001 decision in Government of the Virgin Islands v. Fonseca, footnote 7, declined to determine a territorial duty-to-retreat rule. That historical opinion does not establish the current rule or prove there have been no later authorities. Current territorial law and later decisions remain unverified here; do not infer a rule from the older decision.

V.I. Code Ann. tit. 23, §§ 454-457, 473: a license is required to have and possess any firearm in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and issuance is conditioned on 'a check ... of all available state and federal criminal data banks' (§ 456(a)(5)); all firearms must be entered in the territorial Firearms Register, and a 'dealer's coupon' must be retained by 'any person who sells or otherwise provides the licensee with any firearm' -- language that reaches private providers, not just licensed dealers. Sourced from a handgunlaw.us compilation of the current VI Code text (last updated 7/9/2026) since the official Lexis VI Code site returned access errors during this research.

The '2026 Second Amendment Rights and Public Safety Act' (Act 9113, signed by Gov. Bryan June 24, 2026) made it unlawful to possess, manufacture, import, transfer, transport, sell, or use a firearm suppressor. A legislative amendment adopted in late August 2026 would narrow this to limited residence/business/range possession only (no public carry), but its final enactment could not be confirmed — the DOJ Civil Rights Division, which already had an active Second Amendment lawsuit against the territory, has expanded that complaint to challenge the new bans, indicating a ban (or a still-restrictive successor) remains the operative law as of this research. Status is in active flux and under federal litigation.

14 V.I.C. §2253 makes unauthorized possession of a machine gun a 15-20 year felony with a $25,000 fine; Act 9113 (June 2026) preserved this prohibition, exempting only authorized personnel (law enforcement/military) — no civilian federal-NFA carve-out found.

Legal reporting on Act 9113 (signed June 24, 2026) confirms the law 'preserves prohibitions on automatic weapons, ghost guns, explosive devices, short barreled rifles and shotguns,' with exemptions limited to authorized personnel.

14 V.I.C. §2253 directly criminalizes possessing a 'sawed-off shotgun' (15-20 year felony, $25,000 fine); Act 9113 preserved this prohibition.

Act 9113 (June 2026) is reported to preserve a prohibition on 'explosive devices' with exemptions only for authorized personnel. True AOW status specifically was not separately confirmed, but the territory's broadly restrictive, permit-based regime for all firearms leaves no apparent lawful civilian path.