Gun Owners of America and the Gun Owners Foundation have filed a lawsuit against the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and its police commissioner, escalating an ongoing legal battle over Second Amendment rights in the territory.

The two nonprofit organizations are seeking a federal court order that would require the U.S. Virgin Islands to allow nonresidents to apply for and obtain licenses to carry concealed handguns within the territory.

According to the lawsuit filed on Monday, Florida resident Sean Dale Henry — a member of Gun Owners of America and a supporter of the Gun Owners Foundation — made multiple phone calls to the U.S. Virgin Islands police department in an attempt to apply for a concealed carry license. The complaint states that he received no response.

"Henry has been unable to get the USVI police to so much as pick up the telephone," the lawsuit states. "The fact that the USVI police do not answer their phone makes (Henry's) need to keep and bear arms for his own self-defense all the more vital."

The filing notes that Henry plans to visit the U.S. Virgin Islands at least twice in the coming months and wishes to carry a concealed firearm for self-defense.

"The Second Amendment doesn't end at the shoreline," said Luis Valdes, the U.S. Virgin Islands outreach director for Gun Owners of America, in a statement. "Americans don't lose their constitutional rights simply because they travel to a U.S. territory."

A spokesperson for the U.S. Virgin Islands government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This marks the second lawsuit targeting the territory's government and police commissioner over Second Amendment issues. In December, the U.S. Justice Department filed suit against the U.S. Virgin Islands, accusing it of obstructing and systematically denying American citizens the right to possess and carry firearms. The Justice Department cited local laws requiring applicants to demonstrate a "good reason to fear death or great injury to his person or property" and to have "two credible persons" vouch for their need of a firearm.

Those requirements mirror the kind of "may-issue" licensing framework the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in its 2022 decision, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which held that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense and that applicants cannot be required to show a special or heightened need.

At that time, the U.S. Virgin Islands government stated it was "committed to protecting constitutional rights while maintaining public safety."

In a February court filing, the U.S. Virgin Islands pushed back, accusing the U.S. government of coming to court "with unclean hands" and employing hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers who it alleged had deprived people of "rights, privileges and immunities secured and protected by the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 14th amendments."

"The United States of America cannot come to the court with unclean hands and seek to enjoin others while engaging in such blatant, violative, and abusive patterns and practices itself," the filing read.

That case remains ongoing. Together, the two lawsuits represent a widening legal effort to bring U.S. territories' firearm licensing regimes in line with the Bruen standard, an issue that could also affect carry-permit rules in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.