◆ U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS · CARRY LAW
U.S. Virgin Islands.
Information, not legal advice. Confirm with the state before you carry.
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◆ THE SHORT ANSWEREvery tile below is one of the answers further down this page, with its citation.
Concealed, no permit
No
Open, no permit
No
In a vehicle, no permit
No
Getting a permit
Yes, shall-issue
- Magazine capacity is capped here.
- A permit is required to buy a firearm, not just to carry one.
◆ CARRYING HERE
What U.S. Virgin Islands requires
The state's permit is the Virgin Islands Firearms License, issued by the Commissioner of the Virgin Islands Police Department.
Carrying without a permit3
Can I carry concealed here without a permit?
Permitless or "constitutional" carry. "Limited" means some adults qualify and others do not. Read the qualifier.
No
No, but note what changed in June 2026. There is no longer a separate carry permit: the Virgin Islands Firearms License itself authorizes concealed carry, provided you also hold a registration certificate for that particular firearm.
23 V.I.C. § 453(h) (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
Can I carry openly here without a permit?
No
No, and open carry is barred outright, even for a licensee. § 453(i) says plainly that “no person shall carry any firearm openly in public”, and no person may carry a longarm in public at all.
23 V.I.C. § 453(i) (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
Can I keep a loaded handgun in my car without a permit?
No
No. With the license and registration certificate you may carry in a vehicle; without them you may not, and a longarm must be unloaded with neither it nor the ammunition accessible to driver or passengers. In a lockbox if the vehicle has no trunk.
23 V.I.C. §§ 453(h), (k), (m), 489a(c) (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
Permits and age3
If I want this state's permit, will they issue one?
Shall-issue means the state must issue to any qualified applicant. May-issue leaves it to an official's discretion.
Yes, shall-issue
Shall-issue since June 2026. “The Commissioner shall issue a Virgin Islands Firearms License to any person who submits a completed application” meeting eleven objective requirements, with a decision due in 30 days and a five-year term.
23 V.I.C. §§ 454(a), 456(d)(4), 457(a) (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
Can I get this state's permit if I live somewhere else?
Yes
Apparently yes. The eleven license requirements ask for United States citizenship or lawful resident alien status and say nothing about living in the Virgin Islands.
23 V.I.C. § 454(a)(2) (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
How we checked there is no such law
Read all eleven requirements in § 454(a) on 2026-09-06, in the enacted text of Act No. 9113. Territorial residence is not among them, and the subsection is framed as a closed list the Commissioner “shall” issue against. § 455(a)(2) asks for every home address of the previous five years, which is an identity check rather than a residence requirement.How old do I have to be to carry here?
The floor for the least restrictive lawful route. Where permitless and permit ages differ, the qualifier says so.
21
21, with no military or law-enforcement exception written into the age requirement itself.
23 V.I.C. § 454(a)(1) (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
If an officer stops you1
Do I have to tell an officer I am armed?
"Required" means you must volunteer it on contact. "On request" means only when asked.
Not required
No duty to volunteer that you are armed, but you must always have the license on you when in possession of a firearm, and it says so on the license itself.
23 V.I.C. § 456(e)(3) (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
How we checked there is no such law
Read §§ 451 to 459, 471 to 473, 480, 485, 489a and 491 to 493 of the enacted act on 2026-09-06. The sections governing carrying, licensing, registration and penalties. None imposes a duty to notify or inform an officer. § 456(e)(3) requires only that the license be carried.Buying and owning2
Do I need a state-issued card just to own or buy a firearm here?
Illinois' FOID is the main example. Distinct from a carry permit.
Required
Yes, and twice over: a Virgin Islands Firearms License to acquire at all, plus a registration certificate for each individual firearm. Ammunition may only be sold in person and only in a caliber matching a firearm you have registered.
23 V.I.C. §§ 453(f), 459, 466(b) (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
Is there a limit on magazine capacity here?
Only in some cases
Fifteen rounds. A “large capacity magazine” is any magazine, belt, box, drum or tube holding more than 15 rounds, and possessing one is restricted even for a licensee.
23 V.I.C. §§ 451(q), 493, 452(e) (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
How the state governs guns2
Can a city here write its own gun rules on top of the state's?
Full preemption means state law is the only law. Partial means some cities may go further. Check locally.
Sometimes, check the city
No preemption provision. The territory legislates firearms directly for all three islands.
No preemption provision in 23 V.I.C. ch. 5 (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
How we checked there is no such law
Read the enacted act on 2026-09-06, including its repealer at Section 7, which strikes inconsistent rules in the Code of Virgin Islands Rules but says nothing about local regulation.Does this state have a red-flag law?
An extreme risk protection order lets a court order firearms surrendered temporarily.
No, none in this state
No extreme-risk order.
No extreme-risk order in 23 V.I.C. ch. 5 (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
How we checked there is no such law
Read the licensing, revocation and penalty sections of the enacted act on 2026-09-06. §§ 454, 458, 471 to 473, 480 and 491 to 493. Nothing creates a petition-based seizure order. § 454(a)(9) bars a license to someone under a qualifying restraining order, and § 458 lets the Commissioner suspend or revoke, but neither is a court order sought against a person's firearms.◆ RECIPROCITY
Permits U.S. Virgin Islands honors
If you are visiting U.S. Virgin Islands, this is whether your permit counts here.
Pick a state for the full answer with its citation, or find it in the grid below.
Not honored54
◆ RECIPROCITY, THE OTHER WAY
Where U.S. Virgin Islands permits are honored
If you live in U.S. Virgin Islands, this is where your permit travels.
Pick a state for the full answer with its citation, or find it in the grid below.
Honored30
Honored, with a condition1
Not honored23
◆ NFA ITEMS
Suppressors and NFA legality
Federal registration is required everywhere these are legal. A state can prohibit them regardless, and several do.
Can I possess a suppressor here?
Federal NFA registration is required everywhere it is legal. State law can prohibit it regardless.
Prohibited
Prohibited, and § 492(d) is headed “ATF Authorization Not Recognized”. A federal tax stamp buys you nothing here, and the device is contraband subject to immediate seizure and destruction.
23 V.I.C. § 492 (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
Can I possess a short-barreled rifle here?
Prohibited
Prohibited. Short-barreled rifles are on the list no person or organization may possess, receive, purchase, sell or transfer.
23 V.I.C. § 453(e)(3) (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
Can I possess a short-barreled shotgun here?
Prohibited
Prohibited. A short-barreled shotgun means any barrel under eighteen inches.
23 V.I.C. §§ 453(e)(4), 451 (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
Can I possess a machine gun here?
Federally, civilian possession is limited to pre-1986 registered transferables.
Prohibited
Prohibited. An “automatic weapon” means any firearm that can fire more than one shot without manual reloading by a single pull of the trigger, and conversion kits are separately banned.
23 V.I.C. §§ 453(e)(2), 451(c), 492 (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
Can I possess an AOW here?
Legal
Not on the banned list, but the Virgin Islands licenses and registers every firearm, and a HOME-MADE one with no serial number is a “ghost gun”, which is banned.
23 V.I.C. §§ 451(n), 453(e) (Act No. 9113, 24 June 2026)Read at the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature ↗Checked 10 days ago
How we checked there is no such law
Read Act 9113 itself, all 25 pages, at the Legislature’s bill tracker on 2026-09-07. The PDF is a SCAN with no text layer (25 characters extractable from 935KB), so it was rendered at 200dpi with pdftoppm and put through macOS Vision OCR, yielding 56,800 characters. Searched that for “any other weapon”, “disguised”, “cane gun” and “pen gun”: zero hits for each.◆ SOURCES
Where this comes from
This is information, not legal advice. Gun law changes often and the penalty for getting it wrong is criminal. Confirm every answer with the state before you carry there.
- The authority
- the Commissioner of the Virgin Islands Police Department ↗
- ATF’s index
- U.S. Virgin Islands firearm statutes ↗ (PDF)