From Hawaii Rifle Association March 30, 2016

At today's meeting of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Labor, three of the four bad gun bills were passed and the fourth was deferred.  The legislators are slowly starting to hear the gun owners.  To those of you who took the time to contact your Senator and Representative, we thank you for your efforts.  However, it's still not over and we still need to get more gun owners involved and fight to maintain our rights.  REMEMBER, it's much easier to fight for the rights you have than to fight to get them back after they've been taken away.  Look at the 10-round magazine limit for handguns.  We lost that fight and we HAVEN'T been able to get it back.  The bills will now move to conference committee for voting.

We're running out of time.  We need to kill ALL five anti-gun bills from further movement.  So, please contact your district Representative and Senator. If you aren't sure who that is, go to: www.capitol.hawaii.gov and on the upper right of the page, enter your street name where it says "Find your legislator".  THIS IS AN ELECTION YEAR and they need to know that you vote and you are watching how they vote on bills affecting your Second Amendment rights.  Be sure to identify your district and provide your first and last name in all correspondence with your legislators.

The bills are:

HB 625, HD1 - Misdemeanor Stalking and harassment (includes unwanted text messages, calls, and emails) permanently disqualifies ownership, possession, or control of a firearm.  Takes a Governor's pardon to restore.

HB 2629, HD2 - Enrolls firearm applicants in a federal Rap Back system at the cost of the firearm applicant (no other state uses this permanent database for firearms owners).  Unlawful under federal law. 

HB 2632, HD2, SD1 - Requires the Chief of Police to seize firearms from any person who had an emergency hospitalization for significant behavioral, emotional, or mental disorder, without a court order (no diagnosis necessary and could include diabetic shock).

The following bills were deferred, but there still remains the possibility they could be resurrected....especially if Representative Rhoads has a say in it:

HB 626, HD 1 - Consumption of any alcohol (no quantification identified) while in possession of a firearm is a misdemeanor.

HB 1813, HD1 - Disqualifies you from possession of guns or ammunition if your name appears on the federal Terrorist Watch NO-FLY List (a list which the federal auditor found is unreliable and no one knows how you are placed on the list and getting off the list is next to impossible).  Error rate of 38% acknowledged.

MAHALO

HARVEY GERWIG, LEGISLATIVE LIAISON and PRESIDENT, HRA

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Hawaii: Anti-Gun Bills Scheduled for Committee Vote on Wednesday

From NRA-ILA MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2016

On Wednesday, March 30, four anti-gun bills, House Bill 625, House Bill 626, House Bill 2629, and House Bill 2632, have all been placed on the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee hearing notice for decision making.  These four bills previously passed the Senate Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee and were sent to the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee for further consideration.  The committee has opted not to accept public testimony on these bills during the hearing, so it is vital that you take this opportunity to participate and contact members of the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee TODAY and politely urge them to oppose these bills!  Please click the “Take Action” button below to contact the committee members!

HB 625 would expand prohibited possessors to include certain misdemeanor crimes.  Under this bill, sending unwanted text messages and emails could qualify someone for misdemeanor stalking and possibly result in an individual being denied a constitutional right.  Constitutional rights are generally restricted only upon conviction of a felony.  The reasons for this are two-fold.  It limits restrictions on constitutional rights to only the most serious offenses, and, perhaps more importantly, felony convictions provide greater procedural protections to the accused, which results in more reliable convictions.  The right to keep and bear arms should not be treated as a second-class right and should be restricted only upon conviction of a felony like the right to vote, to serve on a jury, and to hold public office. 

Further, by including a new category of prohibited possessors for certain misdemeanor crimes some citizens who may have taken a plea deal years ago will also become prohibited overnight and not have been apprised of this additional penalty when taking their deal or fighting their case.  Gun owners may not even know they are prohibited under this new statute until they renew their permit and discover that they are now in violation of the law due to a misdemeanor crime that occurred many years ago.

HB 626 would establish a petty misdemeanor for consuming alcohol while possessing a firearm.  HB 626 does not set a limit for the amount of alcohol an individual can legally consume while in possession of a firearm.  Without this specification, any amount of alcohol consumption while in possession of a firearm could constitute a crime.  Individuals who possess a firearm and have had a couple sips of wine or anything containing alcohol, like Nyquil, could be in violation of the law.

HB 2629 would expand the existing registration requirement and input law-abiding Hawaii gun owners into a federal biometric database, managed by the FBI, for continuous monitoring.  Positive hits in this system have not necessarily been adjudicated and could cause issues with an individual’s ability to exercise their constitutional rights.  Additionally, this could result in a potential fee increase and cost gun owners more than what is already required in Hawaii due to the cost associated with adding individuals into this biometric database.

HB 2632 would expand the list of possible prohibited possessors to include anyone who has undergone or is undergoing emergency hospitalization.  This expansion for emergency hospitalization is vague and could entrap a person who has suffered something as common as diabetic shock to suddenly lose their Second Amendment rights, without due process of the law, simply for receiving care.  Additionally under this bill, individuals are required to surrender firearms immediately, or else law enforcement will seize firearms, all without due process.

Once again, please click the “Take Action” button above to contact members of the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee in opposition to these anti-gun bills!

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Hawaii: Ivory Ban Legislation Scheduled for Hearing Tuesday

From NRA-ILA MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2016

Tomorrow, March 29, Senate Bill 2647, a bill which would ban the sale, purchase and possession with the intent to sell legally acquired ivory and ivory products, has been scheduled for a committee hearing in the House Committee on Judiciary.  Please contact the members of the House Committee on Judiciary and politely urge them to OPPOSE SB 2647. Please click the “Take Action” button below to contact the committee members!

SB 2647 would ban the sale, purchase, barter, and possession with intent to sell any ivory (defined to include mammoth ivory), ivory product, rhinoceros horn, rhinoceros horn product and products from various other animal species.  SB 2647 goes far beyond law-abiding gun owners and would adversely impact anyone who owns ivory, and products from a wide variety of animals, by significantly diminishing the value of lawfully acquired property.

While the NRA stands in opposition to the illegal ivory trade and poaching, banning the trade and sale of legally owned, pre-ban ivory will not save one elephant (much less mammoths, ivory from which is covered in the bill, even though mammoths have long been extinct).  SB 2647 will however negatively impact those who have no part in these illegal activities.  American collectors, sportsmen, hunters, and recreational shooters have legally purchased firearms that incorporate ivory features for decades.  These include some of America’s most historically significant and collectible guns.  Ivory is also commonly integrated in accessories used by hunters and fishermen, such as knife handles, and handles for gun cleaning equipment and tools.  Additionally, this bill would not allow antique dealers and collectors to buy or sell other legal, antique ivory and ivory products such as musical instruments, jewelry and furniture pieces.

There are several narrow and limited exceptions for knives, firearms and musical instruments; however, the exceptions are confusing and burdensome for individuals. For a firearm to qualify for sale under the exemption, the firearm must meet all of the following requirements:

• The ivory component or “animal species part” of the firearm must make up less than twenty percent of the firearm by volume;
• The owner or seller must have historical documentation showing the item was manufactured prior to 1975; and
• The ivory component or “animal species part” of the firearm is not the primary source of value of the item.

This exemption places the onus on the owner to prove the ivory meets the requirement specified in the exemptions, and in most cases, pre-ban ivory pieces lack the documentation required to meet this exemption.  Additionally, the overly broad language of the exemption could easily entrap law-abiding individuals and turn them into criminals overnight.  What kind of “historical documentation” would be required?  Does the firearm have to be manufactured prior to 1975, or just the ivory component?  How would individuals accurately measure the volume of a firearm or a small, non-removable ivory component, such as an inlaid decoration, without damaging the product itself?  And further, does the firearm itself provide the primary source of value for the sale, or is it the ivory decoration that makes the firearm so valuable?

The bottom line is that any property made from a product that was lawfully acquired should not be made illegal to sell and such an action is effectively a taking of property without compensation.

Once again, please click the “Take Action” button above to contact members of the House Committee on Judiciary in opposition to Senate Bill 2647!