Category: A Victory!
by Lee Williams
The United States Virgin Islands are beautiful, peaceful and serene as long as visitors don’t stray too far from the well-patrolled tourist areas. For Virgin Islands residents, as well as any visitors who may wander out of the safe zones, the USVI can be a death sentence.
The USVI has one of the highest crime rates in the world, per capita more than New York or even Washington D.C.
All major crime in the U.S. Territory is run by the “Commission,” hardcore but well-organized gangsters who are headquartered on St. Croix, the largest of the three islands.
The Commission is responsible for operating a massive international drug trade, which are delivered from across the Caribbean. It’s not unusual to hear planes landing at night without lights.
Virgin Islands criminals are smart, sophisticated and well-armed with handguns, shotguns and machineguns. For the most part, they only prey on other criminals, but this can change in an instant.
The Virgin Islands Police Department offers little resistance to the armed gangs who actually run the territory. The VIPD is severely undermanned, underpaid and undertrained. The department is horribly led.
Many VIPD officers are corrupt. If they’re told to stay away from an area because a shipment is inbound, they do what they’re told, or they can disappear without a trace.
Gun control in the USVI is the worst in the country, and as a result only the bad guys have guns. Civilians have no legal way to protect themselves, their family or their home.
In December 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the VI Government, the VI Police Department and the Police Commissioner, alleging that they “have continued to obstruct and systematically deny law-abiding American citizens this fundamental right by systematically delaying the processing of applications and imposing unconstitutional conditions on the exercise of this constitutional right.”
“The conduct by the USVI, the VIPD, and Defendant Brooks has rendered the constitutional right to keep and bear arms a virtual nullity within the United States Virgin Islands territory,” the lawsuit states.
While this may appear to be a good step forward, many VI residents see little likelihood that the lawsuit will be quick, and even less likelihood that it will force any significant change.
A unique idea
Kosei Ohno owns the Crown Bay Marina, which is located on St. Thomas. The marina has 100 slips, including many that can take mega-yachts of 200-feet or greater, and it’s only five minutes from the airport.
Ohno, who also spends time in Washington State, recently filed suit against the Virgin Islands Police Commissioner and the VI government after they denied his attempt to renew his firearm licenses, which he had for several years.
Legally owning firearms in the USVI is incredibly invasive and expensive. Gun owners must pay a tax of $150 per firearm every three years. If you legally own 10 guns, you’re going to pay $1,500 every three years. You must also allow a VI Police Officer access to your safe, and they photograph the contents. Getting the actual license can take 18 months or even longer.
“The officer comes into your home without a warrant, demands to see your safe, demands you open the safe and then takes pictures,” Ohno told me this week. “Some people have guns, jewelry and gold bars as well as cash, and you wonder how it gets stolen. The whole process creates a vulnerability and a list of people, many of whom have lost guns through burglaries and theft.”
Ohno soon learned he was not alone.
“I found out through a source of mine at the VIPD that they made it their new mission to deny everyone’s permits,” he said.
So far, Ohno said, he has spent more than $70,000 to get his permits back, so he decided to act. He created the Virgin Islands Safe Gun Owners, a private group of more than 250 residents who all believed it was time to get organized. Their mission is to “restore and promote Second Amendment Rights in the Territory while promoting safe gun ownership.”
“There was considerable abuse happening,” Ohno said. “Our members include many retired officer, feds, military and business owners. It’s a pretty diverse and expansive group. We were able to give the feds evidence, which allowed them to get involved in the Second Amendment litigation against the police department. I learned it’s not just me whose rights were violated.”
The group introduced legislation that they say will modernize firearms ownership throughout the territory.
Ohno said his lawsuit, which he filed in federal not territorial court, has “expansive potential.” But getting arrested for a firearm that’s not registered, he said, would be disastrous.
“According to Virgin Islands law, if you’re caught with an unregistered firearm, the mandatory sentence is 10 to life,” he said.
Ohno has just launched a GoFundMe page and is considering other legal options.
Said Ohno: “Bravery is contagious. Fear is just as contagious, but transition is always risky.”
The AR-15 rifle is the most popular long gun in America. It is built around upper and lower receivers cut from aircraft-grade aluminum.
Aluminum is a ubiquitous material in modern society. Back in 1956 when Gene Stoner and a few others designed that first AR-15 rifle around aluminum receivers, they literally changed the landscape. In the 1980s, everybody in the combat handgun world was churning out high-capacity, aluminum-framed pistols. Nowadays, we discard or recycle aluminum beverage cans by the zillions.
One of the neat things about aluminum is the way it sort of heals itself. Pure aluminum is highly reactive when exposed to air. However, the resulting aluminum oxide is exceptionally stable. This results in a natural microscopic protective coating on exposed surfaces. In applications like window frames, mechanical trauma from repetitive use results in tiny scratches that instantly oxidize, ensuring a robust material that resists environmental degradation.
Aluminum is relatively soft and easy to both extrude and machine. There are dozens of recognized aluminum alloys. Most AR parts are formed from 6061, which includes trace amounts of silicon, magnesium, copper and chromium. The 7075 alloy includes zinc in place of the silicon.
The 1980s was the decade of the “Wonder Nines.” These high-capacity 9mm pistols were built around aluminum frames.
Digging Deeper
Aluminum is indeed fascinating stuff. It has an atomic number of 13 and is roughly one-third of the density of steel. Aluminum is the 12th most common element in the universe and the third-most common element in the Earth’s crust right behind silicon and oxygen. It accounts for 1.59% of the Earth’s mass. The stuff is everywhere.
Despite the fact that aluminum was so common in nature, back in the late 1800s it was actually considered a precious metal. Gram for gram, aluminum once cost more than both gold and silver. Napoleon III reserved his aluminum flatware to impress visiting dignitaries. Lesser visitors got the silver.
In 1884, the Washington Monument was capped with a six-pound piece of aluminum. The total national output of aluminum that same year in the United States was only 112 pounds. Aluminum was revered similarly to platinum. How was it that such an abundant material might have been considered so rare and valuable a short century or so ago? That all depends on how you refine it.
While there are scads of elemental aluminum in the earth’s crust, prior to the late 1800s, it was terribly difficult to access. Most elemental aluminum is found in the form of a natural ore called bauxite. By 19th-century standards, extracting usable aluminum from this ore was nigh impossible.
Nowadays, lots of guns are built out of aluminum. This custom
takedown AR short-barreled rifle and this FN SCAR-15P carbine
are counted among them.
Find a Need and Fill It
In 1886, a 17-year-old college student named Charles Hall was sitting in a chemistry class when his professor told him about the aluminum quandary. Hall’s professor actually said that if someone could devise a cost-effective method for extracting aluminum from bauxite, he would become the richest man in the world. Intrigued, the teenager went home determined to find a better way.
For the next five years, Charles Hall toiled in a workshop he had erected inside his family’s woodshed. Eventually, his perseverance paid off and he discovered a unique process that would produce aluminum from bauxite using electricity. At age 22, Charles Hall was indeed about to change the world.
Bizarrely, at exactly the same time in France, another 22-year-old, this one named Paul Heroult, discovered the identical technique. The resulting electrolytic extraction of aluminum from bauxite has become known as the Hall-Heroult Process.
AR-15 receivers are lightweight, ubiquitous and strong.
Changing the World
Because both men discovered the process at the same time, neither established a monopoly. However, there was more than enough sweetness to go around. The young Charles Hall founded Alcoa, short for Aluminum Company of America. In 2023, Alcoa’s total revenue was $10.55 billion.
Extracting usable aluminum is still a terribly energy-dependent undertaking. As a result, most aluminum smelters are located in places where electric power is cheap. Production of one kilo of aluminum requires the equivalent of seven kilos of oil energy. That compares to 1.5 kilos for steel and 2 kilos for plastic. Today, 5% of the electric power produced in the United States goes toward smelting aluminum.
Ruminations
I am pretty quick to denigrate young people. With the exception of my own kids, I just don’t find the youth of today terribly impressive. In fact, I’m not sure I’d trust your typical Information Age 17-year-old unsupervised with electrical tape, much less a homebuilt metal smelting workshop. However, when Charles Hall was seventeen, he took up the challenge to find a better way to extract aluminum from rocks. In so doing, he did become lyrically wealthy.
Had Charles Hall been born a century later, he would not have been able to buy a beer or own a gun when he first embarked upon his holy quest to conjure aluminum from the ground. However, through hard work, perseverance and no small amount of talent, this driven young man did, indeed, change the world. So, the next time you drag your favorite AR-15 out to the range, just appreciate that some teenager figured out how to extract the stuff they used to make it.
The city of Denver has infringed upon the rights of its citizens for decades by banning the ownership of common, constitutionally protected semi-automatic rifles. Now, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is taking the city to task over the infringement.
Passed back in 1989, the ordinance makes it illegal to carry, store, keep, manufacture, sell, or otherwise possess what it calls “assault weapons” in the city. On May 5, the DOJ filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado seeking to have the ban ruled unconstitutional and stricken from the books.
“The Constitution is not a suggestion and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a news release announcing the action. “Denver’s ban on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles directly violates the right to bear arms. This Department of Justice will vigorously defend the liberties of law-abiding citizens nationwide.”
In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its landmark decision District of Columbia v. Heller, held that the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to possess weapons that are in common use for lawful purposes. In the complaint, the DOJ argues that Denver’s law directly violates that critical aspect of the ruling.
“In reality, the firearms the City calls ‘assault weapons’ include ordinary semi-automatic rifles possessed by millions of law-abiding Americans,” the complaint explains. “Indeed, Americans own literally tens of millions of AR-15 style rifles, the paradigmatic ‘assault weapon’ covered by the Ordinance. As the Supreme Court has recently recognized, the AR-15 is the most popular rifle in America.
When the City banned AR-15 style rifles with standard capacity magazines, it banned an arm in common use for lawful purposes by law-abiding citizens. Therefore, the Ordinance violates the Second Amendment, and the United States brings this action to vindicate the rights of Denver citizens whose rights have been—and are continuing to be—violated by Defendants.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said her office stands ready to fight this ordinance and any unconstitutional gun laws throughout the nation.
“I have directed the Civil Rights Division, through our new Second Amendment Section, to defend law-abiding Americans from restrictions such as those we are challenging in these cases,” Dhillon said.
“Law-abiding Americans, regardless of what city or state they reside in, should not have to live under threat of criminal sanction just for exercising their Second Amendment right to possess arms which are owned by tens of millions of their fellow citizens.”
Ultimately, the DOJ is asking the court to declare the law unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, enjoin defendants and their agents from enforcing the ordinance to the extent it bans the possession of AR-15-style rifles with standard-capacity magazines, and “such other and additional relief as the interests of justice may require.”
We’re not afraid to take Chuck Yeager’s Beretta Model 1935 pistol to the range; you can take your favorite classic out, too.
You’ve probably heard the term “safe queen,” but for those who aren’t quite sure what it means, simply put, it refers to a firearm so pristine, valuable, historically significant or emotionally important to its owner, it seems unthinkable to shoot it.
Thus, these cherished gems end up being permanently sequestered away in gun safes or comparably secure environments, never to see the light of day, or at best, to be reverently taken out on occasion and briefly admired before being carefully put back into the fortified safety of their sheltered environment.
I think I can safely say that, in most cases, this was not the intent of such firearms by their manufacturers, or even by their original owners. I seriously doubt that the American Northwestern hunter of the early 1900s thought that his 14-inch-barreled Winchester Model 92 would someday become a coveted collectable, too valuable to shoot.
No, he simply special-ordered his Winchester Trapper because he wanted a fast-shooting, easy-to-carry lever-action that was just a tad more compact and lightweight than the standard 20-inch-barreled carbine. Likewise, that 1955 first-year-production Colt Python workhorse may have long ago been put into retirement once the owner realized its value had increased dramatically.
Thus, coveted firearms become safe queens, tucked away into the shadows of obscurity, which not only does an injustice to the design and craftsmanship of the guns themselves (which are no longer allowed to demonstrate the very attributes that made them so valuable in the first place), but just as importantly, deprives their owners from the additional enjoyment they could have—over and above the obvious pride of possession—of pulling the trigger, hearing the shot, feeling the recoil, smelling the smoke and seeing where the bullet hit.
Shooting these guns allows their owners to reap the full potential of their cherished firearms, and—in the case of vintage guns especially—of experiencing what the original owners must have felt when firing that very same gun, which is as close to time travel as we’re likely to get. Without shooting it, how would I have known that my original 1860 Army shoots high and to the left (unlike many of today’s replicas of the same gun, which do not feature the progressive rifling and chamfered chamberings of the originals)?
Yes, I’m talking about actually shooting those collectables. As I typed that last sentence, I could almost hear shouts of “Blasphemy! Heresy!” or worse. But, I’m not talking about shooting a mint, in-the-box collectable firearm, for putting even a single bullet down a pristine bore would instantly and dramatically decrease its value.
Nor am I referring to a vintage gun in which there are potential safety issues. Rather, I am talking about an otherwise-sequestered safe queen that is in mechanically sound shooting condition, but for one reason or another has not been brought out “to strut its stuff” and permitted to show what it can do, whether at the range or in the field. Thus, it becomes an opportunity lost, but one that is easily redeemed, and almost always with gratifying results.
For example, for an invitational Double Action Only 250 Self Defense Pistol course at Gunsite Academy a few years ago, I was mulling over which of my double-action revolvers to subject to this grueling course, during which I would be putting approximately 500 rounds through my gun over the week-long session.
Looking at the handguns in my safe, my gaze fell upon an S&W-logo-stamped presentation case that I knew held a factory machine-engraved Smith & Wesson Model 29 with a 4-inch barrel I had purchased as an investment when it first came out in 2007. At the time, the gun was a limited edition (it has since been reintroduced as part of Smith & Wesson’s Classic Line).
In addition to the Model 29’s decorative machine engraving and distinctively checkered stocks, I had the company’s Performance Center enhance the gun further by giving it an action job. I then dutifully oiled it, placed it in its case and tucked it away in my safe, and there it had remained for years.
Although the author had his Browning B-92 lever-action in .44 Mag. factory-engraved with his name and further customized by a gunsmith who shortened the barrel to 16 inches and created a lever patterned after John Wayne’s in the movie, “Stagecoach,” he still carries it afield, rather than leaving it in his safe.
Likewise, he continues to use his highly collectible Randall No. 4 Big Game and Skinner • The author had his stock Ruger Super Blackhawk customized by gunsmith Bill Oglesby, who performed 38 different upgrades, including a complete action job, case-hardening the cylinder bushing, new front and rear sights, and crowning the muzzle. Rather than simply keeping this highly customized Ruger in a safe, he also shoots it. Photos: Rick Hacker
I picked up the Smith and cycled the butter-smooth action a few times. That’s when I realized: this is the gun I should be taking to Gunsite. Not only will it physically hold up to the rigors of range time, but also it will definitely stand out amongst the other revolvers being brought to the course.
Plus, when loaded with .44 Spl. instead of wrist-pounding .44 Mag., the hefty revolver with its easy-to-see sights might even improve my shooting—and it did. Plus, as anticipated, it garnered a fair share of oohs and aahs from my fellow shooters.
During that same shooting experience, however, we were all equally impressed with another collectible that came to the firing line: Bobby Tyler of Tyler Gun Works in Friona, Texas, had brought his authentic Smith & Wesson Registered Magnum.
“I decided to run the course at Gunsite Academy with a Registered Magnum because it’s one of the most remarkable revolvers ever built,” said Tyler. “Crafted in the 1930s, these firearms were tuned to perfection at a time when craftsmanship was prioritized over cost.
Using such a historically significant and finely made revolver elevated the entire experience. Running the course with that level of precision and elegance made it truly unforgettable.”
Indeed, taking a safe queen shooting adds another level of memories to the experience, sometimes over and above the cost of the gun. For example, one of my prized hunting rifles is a Griffin & Howe 1903 Springfield that, according to the company’s re-stamped No. 110 serial number, was built sometime during the early 1930s.
Typical of Griffin and Howe’s sporterized bolt actions from that pre-Winchester Model 70 period, it had not only been rebuilt from a war-surplus Springfield action, but also had been given rust-blue furniture, a jeweled bolt and stocked in finely figured, hand-rubbed French Circassian walnut embellished with 22 lpi hand-checkering and a buffalo horn tip, then fitted with a Hawkins recoil pad and topped with a gold-accented, three-leaf express sight.
Another intriguing aspect of this rifle was the original owner’s gold-filled “CSC “initials engraved on the floorplate. I’ve often wondered who that person was, for when I purchased this rifle, it was sporting a vintage Lyman 2X Alaskan scope and had already gone through multiple owners. Thus, its original history was lost.
Nonetheless, Griffin & Howe rifles were built to be used, so, shortly after acquiring this elegant example of early 20th-century American gunsmithing, I took it on a sheep hunt on the Carrizo Plain of central California. It is impossible to hunt with a rifle like this and not be aware that you are carrying something special. When the time came, the Griffin & Howe shouldered perfectly, balanced instantly and the trigger broke at a crisp 3 pounds, dropping a full-curl Rambouillet-Navajo ram.
“You’ll never see another ram out here with horns like that,” my guide enthused, and he was right. The taxidermist took my deposit and my trophy ram, neither of which I have seen again. Although over the years I have been unable to track either down, I still have my Griffin & Howe to bring back memories of that great hunt.
Even timeless classics like this original Colt 1860 Army revolver deserve their time on the firing line, a literal blast from the past • Colt made a limited run of 4-inch-barreled blackpowder frame Storekeepers in 1987 and again in 2008. Most were purchased as collectables, but the author wanted to find out how they shot compared with the standard SAA barrels, and there was only one way to find out.
He shot this group with Winchester 225 grain Silvertip hollowpoints • This pristine 1974-era Third Series Colt Woodsman can be kept in its like-new condition when carrying it in the field by using a pigskin-lined holster • To keep fragile grips, such as these hand-carved pearl stocks, from cracking or chipping while shooting vintage handguns, the author recommends temporarily replacing them with more durable stocks. Photos: Rick Hacker
Unlike my Griffin & Howe, however, many safe queens are not especially valuable in a monetary sense. As an example, one of my most cherished firearms is a New Dixie Squirrel Rifle, a .40-caliber, muzzleloading Tennessee-style long rifle that Turner Kirkland produced in Belgium from 1955 through 1981 for his Dixie Gun Works catalog. It wasn’t expensive even back then, originally listing for $79.50, but in the early 1970s, that was all I could (barely) afford. Thus, it became the first gun I bought shortly after getting married.
Later, when my fortunes increased slightly, I had the rifle upgraded with double-set triggers and brass “hunter’s stars” inlays. With 55 grains of FFG black powder and a .395-inch, patched round ball, that rifle proved to be extremely accurate (not only on squirrels; I actually won a few matches with it).
Today, however, flipping through Dixie’s current catalog and surfing the internet, one can buy excellent, new-reproduction Kentucky-styled rifles for far less—adjusted for inflation—than I originally paid for my used New Dixie Squirrel Rifle. Yet, I wouldn’t dream of selling that maple-stocked muzzleloader with its blued octagon barrel and my crudely filed-down sights; it holds too many fond memories. So, although it resides in my safe, I still take it out occasionally to “make smoke,” thus reliving those early years.
By the same token, the .22 rifle you taught your son or daughter to shoot years ago is sentimentally priceless, and no doubt is still ready to punch out a few empty tin cans, yet it doesn’t leave the confines of the safe for a casual plinking session with the grandkids. And then there are the new-in-the-box guns that are put away and never shot, because, as one friend told me after I admired his new Henry Big Boy Brass Rifle, “It’s just too pretty to shoot.” I suspect Henry Repeating Arms CEO and founder Anthony Imperato might dispute that statement; I have often thought that some firearms should come with dents and dings from the factory, just so purchasers wouldn’t have to worry about being the first to cause such traumatic mishaps.
Griffin & Howe rifles are highly coveted—all the more reason the author hunts with his. Photo: Rick Hacker
Not that I condone cavalier treatment of prized firearms today, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be shot. The primary rule is to take precautions: The first step is to ensure the gun is safe to shoot. Vintage guns especially should be checked by a gunsmith familiar with their particular functions (lever-action, single-shot, flintlock, etc.). Headspacing can be a problem with some older cartridge guns. Next—and crucial to maintaining the condition and integrity of your prized possession—is to protect the exterior finish and internal mechanisms. This can be accomplished with a light, hand-rubbed coating of linseed oil, when appropriate, and keeping the action sufficiently oiled to ensure proper functioning may be needed, as stored guns tend to dry out over time.
Carrying the gun in a padded case is an easy protective fix when taking it to the range. Out in the field, it becomes more challenging. I once took my 12-gauge, 1902-era L.C. Smith No. 3E, with its color-case-hardened, hand-engraved lockplates, on a duck hunt because its twin deeply blued Nitro steel barrels were choked full and full, which promised more hits on birds that might not be totally fooled by the decoys.
This turned out to be a bad move, as the overcast morning became stormy—good for duck hunting but bad for my Elsie, which still performed admirably, but was subjected to a flurry of rain squalls. After returning home and thoroughly wiping it down, I took the shotgun to my gunsmith to make sure the action hadn’t been subjected to undetected moisture. Returning the shotgun to me, he said “Those locks are hand-fitted to the stock so precisely that I wouldn’t want to remove them again, which could damage the surrounding wood.” Needless to say, my L.C. Smith is now a fair-weather smoothbore.
Additionally, whenever I shoot my Smith & Wesson Hand Ejector Third Model .44 Spl., which letters as having been sent to Wolf & Klar in Ft. Worth, Texas, in 1928, I temporarily replace the easily cracked carved steerhead pearl grips that came with the gun with period-correct walnut grips purchased on eBay.
Thus, I can enjoy shooting my collectable revolver while preserving its integrity and value. When it comes to carrying my Colt Woodsman Third Series Target Model or post-war “fat barrel” Colt .38 Super in the field, I use lined holsters to protect the pristine bluing on these guns. I also have a suede-lined holster for my Kimber Pro CDP II, al-though it makes for a tighter fit and can sometimes trap minute particles of grit—not something you want rubbing against polished steel.
So, unless it’s an absolutely mint collectable or of irreplaceable value, there’s no reason to keep your safe queen locked away. By taking a few commonsense precautions combined with a little extra care, the pride of ownership mixed with the enjoyment of shooting a prized possession can give you the best of both worlds.