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PRESENTATION OF CHIEF DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL IAN S.A. CLEMENT DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE’S TESTIMONY THIRTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS IN RE: BILL NO. 36-0144 COMMITTEE ON RULES AND JUDICIARY OCTOBER 9, 2025 Good morning, Chairperson Carla Joseph, Committee on Rule and Judiciary members, other Senators, Legislative staff, and the listening and viewing audiences. I am Chief Deputy Attorney General Ian Clement. It is an honor and a privilege to appear before you this morning. The Department of Justice appreciates the opportunity to comment on Bill No. 36-0144. The Department of Justice has completed a preliminary review of Bill No. 36-0144 and offers the following comments. My comments will not differ significantly from the testimony given by the Attorney General on September 4, 2025, regarding this Bill. The stated purpose of Bill No. 36-0144 is to amend title 14 of the Virgin Islands Code, chapter 113, to define and prohibit assault rifles, ban suppressors and silencers, require safety training for licensed rifle and shotgun holders, prohibit large-capacity magazines, and prevent the illegal sale of firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition. Presentation Testimony of Chief Deputy Attorney General Ian S.A. Clement Bill No. 36-0144 – Committee on Rules and Judiciary October 9, 2025 Pursuant to title 3 of the Virgin Islands Code, section 114, it is the duty of the Attorney General to prosecute, in the Name of the People of the Virgin Islands, offenses against the laws of the Virgin Islands. Today, within the Territory, approximately one-fifth, or one out of every five arrests in the Virgin Islands, involves guns. Tragically, firearms are used during crimes of violence to intimidate, to harm, to kill. Firearms are not manufactured in the Virgin Islands, meaning each and every gun in the Territory entered either legally through the licensing process, which is overseen by the Commissioner of Police and the Firearms Bureau, or illegally smuggled into the Territory. Respectfully, we join with the Virgin Islands Police Department in supporting this Bill. We commend the Legislature for continuing to provide law enforcement with the tools necessary to identify and criminalize the most dangerous manifestation of illegal weapons in the Territory. Historically, proponents of certain rights, especially the Second Amendment, have considered those rights sacrosanct in the United States – as if they were commandments rather than amendments. As enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, every amendment has exceptions or limits. For example, the First Amendment, the right to free speech; the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms; Presentation Testimony of Chief Deputy Attorney General Ian S.A. Clement Bill No. 36-0144 – Committee on Rules and Judiciary October 9, 2025 the Fourth Amendment, the right to be free from illegal search and seizure. However, consistent with public safety, there are certain limitations on each of these rights. For example, the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech. Americans can believe what they wish and say what they want; however, there are limits to this freedom to protect the community. While a person has the right to free speech, it is illegal to use that speech to start a riot, to disturb the peace, or to harass another. While the Fourth Amendment protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures, for important law enforcement purposes, jurists have developed a comprehensive set of rules, exceptions, and penalties. Similarly, the Second Amendment speaks to the right to bear arms. This is not, however, an unfettered right. An individual has the right to bear arms for self- defense; at the same time, a community has legal authority under the Constitution to protect itself. We see this intersection occur often when laws passed by other states to protect the community are challenged in court and ultimately upheld or struck down. Recently, in N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down New York state’s concealed carry law.1 The Supreme Court held that 1 N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022) Presentation Testimony of Chief Deputy Attorney General Ian S.A. Clement Bill No. 36-0144 – Committee on Rules and Judiciary October 9, 2025 the “proper cause” provision was unconstitutional because it interfered with the Second Amendment right to bear arms. And yet, two years later in 2024, in United States v. Rahimi, the same U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state’s right to prohibit the possession of firearms by individuals subject to a domestic violence restraining order.2 In short, Supreme Court precedent establishes that a state cannot, through discretionary factors, limit one’s right to bear arms. It does not mean that any citizen is free to possess any firearm, anywhere, for any purpose. These are the words of the Justices of the Supreme Court: In Bruen, Justice Kavanaugh emphasized that “the Court’s decision does not prohibit states from imposing licensing requirements for carrying a handgun for self-defense.” Bruen at 79. Justice Alito, joining the majority in Bruen, noted that the holding in Bruen does not invalidate laws regulating who may lawfully possess a firearm; “we [have not] disturbed anything that we held in Heller or McDonald about restrictions that may be imposed on the possession or carrying of guns.” Bruen at 72. In McDonald,3 the Supreme Court held that the right to keep and bear arms is “not ‘a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever 2 United States v. Rahimi, 602 U.S. 680 (2024) 3 McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010) Presentation Testimony of Chief Deputy Attorney General Ian S.A. Clement Bill No. 36-0144 – Committee on Rules and Judiciary October 9, 2025 purpose’… We made it clear in Heller4 that our holding did not cast doubt on such longstanding regulatory measures as ‘prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill,’ ‘laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings...’” Id. at 81. The regulation of firearms in America is a contentious issue. The Department of Justice’s role is to enforce the laws enacted by this body. Opponents of this bill will argue that the Second Amendment is absolute. The Supreme Court has clarified that it is not. Written by the Founders, the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms. However, this Territory—and this Legislature— has the authority to restrict certain weapons, magazines, silencers, and accessories, as recognized in Heller, McDonald, Bruen, and Rahimi. Critics will claim this bill criminalizes law-abiding citizens, while criminals will ignore it. But once enacted, law-abiding citizens will comply, and those who do not will cease to be law-abiding. For criminals, possession of these prohibited items may provide the critical charge needed to detain the right individual under the right circumstances and dismantle a criminal network. The Department of Justice is not equipped to speak to the hyper-technical elements of this Bill, including what is or is not a “military grade” accessory, what 4 District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 626 (2008) Presentation Testimony of Chief Deputy Attorney General Ian S.A. Clement Bill No. 36-0144 – Committee on Rules and Judiciary October 9, 2025 is or is not a “tactical pistol,” or what constitutes a “rifle-caliber cartridge.” This will also be the case if asked to prosecute these matters, as we rely on our colleagues and firearms experts at VIPD to identify and define these elements. The Attorney General, Gordon Rhea, and Chief of the Criminal Division, Timothy Perry, testified on this Bill on September 4, 2025. I will not belabor their words. I have attached that testimony about the specifics of the Bill as Exhibit 1 to this Testimony. Suffice it to say that once again, the Department of Justice wholeheartedly endorses the passage of this Bill. 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