St. Thomas Traffic Stop Finds Auto-Sear and Two 9mm Pistols
Police in Charlotte Amalie arrested Shanon Roberts early Sunday, October 11, after a traffic stop turned up two handguns, ammunition, suspected marijuana, and a device designed to convert a pistol to automatic fire. Officers stopped his red Kia Soul on Kronprindsens Gade because its license plates did not appear in the registration system. Roberts faces multiple felony firearms and drug charges, and a judge upheld them at his initial court appearance Tuesday. The arrest happened on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a territory that people reach mainly by air or sea.
Key Details
The stop began just before 2 a.m. when officers patrolling Charlotte Amalie spotted the Kia traveling east. Investigators say the car resembled one used as a getaway vehicle in a robbery the previous month. A registration check followed, and the missing plate record gave officers grounds to pull the vehicle over.
- Vehicle: red Kia Soul, stopped on Kronprindsens Gade shortly before 2 a.m. on October 11
- Stop trigger: license plates not found in the registration system, plus resemblance to a robbery getaway car from the prior month
- Initial find: plant material that tested positive for marijuana in a field test, along with a scale
- Bag one: two more containers of suspected marijuana
- Bag two: a lockbox holding a handgun, two magazines, loose ammunition of several calibers, and an auto-sear
- Bag three: a second handgun and a magazine
- Forensic identification: a Smith & Wesson 9x19mm pistol and a Glock 26 9mm pistol
- Ownership: Roberts reportedly acknowledged that the bags belonged to him
- Firearm status: both guns were unlicensed, according to the report
The marijuana appears to be legal in the territory, so the drug count may hinge on the scale and packaging rather than possession alone. The auto-sear remains the most serious item in the case because it is a federal machine gun violation regardless of local rules.
Background
The National Firearms Act of 1934 regulates machine guns and defines them to include any part designed to convert a firearm into one. Under 26 U.S.C. 5845, an auto-sear qualifies as a machine gun part. Congress then passed the Firearm Owners Protection Act in 1986, which added the Hughes Amendment. That provision, codified at 18 U.S.C. 922(o), bars civilian possession of machine guns made after its effective date. Federal courts have consistently upheld these restrictions, and prosecutors treat auto-sear possession as a felony nationwide.
The Supreme Court's 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen changed the test for gun regulations. Courts now ask whether the text of the Second Amendment covers the conduct and whether the government can show a historical tradition of similar regulation. Territories follow the same federal statutes, so the auto-sear charge does not depend on local gun laws. The Virgin Islands have their own territorial firearms code, which sets separate rules for licensing and carry.
Why It Matters for Gun Owners
If you travel to the Virgin Islands or any island jurisdiction, treat local firearms rules as a separate test. Check the territorial code and contact local police before you bring a gun. A plane ticket does not make a carry permit from your home state valid there. Many gun owners assume that a permit in one state covers the trip. That assumption does not hold in federal territories.
The auto-sear detail matters to every owner, not just tourists. A conversion device found in a bag next to ordinary pistols turns a traffic stop into a federal case. Owners should never buy a switch, a Glock auto-sear, or a drop-in conversion part from a private seller or online listing. Possession of one without ATF approval carries serious prison time. Keep every transfer documented, and know which firearms in your collection came through a licensed dealer.
Pay attention to how the stop started. Officers pulled the Kia because the plates did not match the registration system and the car resembled a getaway vehicle. Traffic stops built on vague resemblance are the kind that generate suppression fights. Owners should understand that a search can turn on details like these.
DownRange Analysis
This case will not test Bruen. Possessing an unregistered machine gun conversion device falls outside any plausible constitutional protection, and courts have said so for decades. The real question is the search. Did the plate mismatch and a loose resemblance to a robbery car justify the stop, and did Roberts consent to the bag searches? Defense attorneys will press those issues, and their outcome matters more than the gun count.
The geography argument, that islands are hard to smuggle into, carries less weight than it sounds. Contraband reaches any jurisdiction through people, boats, and parcels. A chokepoint narrows the flow but does not stop it. Gun owners should focus on what they control: lawful acquisition, clean records, and knowing the rules where they travel. Before your next trip, check the territorial code, confirm your carry status, and leave any part you cannot document at home.
