HRA Alert: 3 Bills for Hearing Monday Feb 9, 2015

by Dr. Maxwell Cooper, HRA Legislative Liaison

Three important bills are up for a hearing in the Hawaii House Water & Land Committee, Monday Feb 9, 2015. 

Please send testimony, and come and deliver it in person if you can for this first hearing in the House, on firearms and hunting issues.

Go to the Hawaii State Legislature web site Hearing Notice:  http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2015/hearingnotices/HEARING_WAL_02-09-15_.HTM

See HB 1041, HB 837, and HB 50 on  the notice.  Click on Status & Testimony for each bill number for the bill history, description, and full text.  Click on Sign In/Register.  Go back and click Submit Testimony, and follow the prompts. You can attach your testimony as a file, or type it in the "comments" box.  Please submit separate testimony for each of the 3 bills. 

FOR YOUR TESTIMONY TO COUNT, PLEASE SEND BY 10 AM, SUNDAY, FEB. 8. HB50 is the House Version of the Range Protection Bill you may have testified on last Tuesday in the Senate.  You can send your same testimony, updated for this hearing.

HB 1041 Creates a Hunting Commission

HRA SUPPORTS.   Hunting, a human heritage as old as our species, has no official voice in our state. The Governor appoints and nominates members to more than 170 other boards and commissions. An effective Hunting Commission is needed.

HB 837 Ivory ban.

HRA OPPOSES.  Elephant populations in sub-equatorial Africa in areas with good habitat development and game management policies are healthy and increasing in numbers according to the World Wildlife Fund web site, 2015.       Sales of confiscated poached ivory and ivory harvested for damage control funds anti-poaching enforcement and habitat preservation in impoverished African areas where elephant populations are threatened with extinction. Banning anything is just price support, increasing demand. This bill proposes to make criminals of anyone with antique gun grips or sight beads, musical instruments, scrimshaw, hatpins, or jewelry bearing small amounts of ivory from any source harvested long ago and offered for sale or transfer other than by inheritance.  Appraisal as an antique, produced before 1989, or lawfully harvested should be exemptions.Museums should be exempted.

HB 50 Shooting Range Protection.

HRA SUPPORTS.  Nuisance lawsuits brought against lawful previously established shooting ranges, public and private, are often threatened by disgruntled neighbors and government agencies. This bill helps protects vital places to shoot. Mahalo to Representative Ito for introducing it.

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"Legislation is like the lottery.  You can't ever win if you don't buy a ticket!"