Hawaii: Trigger Modification Bill Scheduled for Hearing

From NRA-ILA, Feb 10, 2018

On Tuesday, February 13, the House Committee on Judiciary has scheduled to hear House Bill 1908, legislation prohibiting certain trigger modifications. Contact members of the Committee and urge their opposition to HB 1908 by clicking on the take action button below.

Also, please consider submitting testimony to the committee through the Hawaii Legislature website.  In order to submit testimony, you will need to create an account.  For help creating an account and submitting testimony, click here.

House Bill 1908, introduced by Representative Gregg Takayama (D-34), would make it a felony for any person who “manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the State, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives, lends, or possesses” certain trigger modifications. The broad language of this bill could encompass many common modifications done by law-abiding gun owners to make their firearms more suitable for self-defense, competition, hunting, or even overcoming disability.

On Thursday, the House Committee on Public Safety passed House Bill 2228 with amendments. House Bill 2228 will now move to the Judiciary committee where it has yet to be scheduled for a hearing.

House Bill 2228, sponsored by Representative Gregg Takayama (D-34), is similar to SB 2436, dramatically reducing the time period a prohibited person, whether temporarily or permanently prohibited, has to comply with the current requirement to surrender their firearms from 30 days to 24 hours.  This expedited time period could subject an individual, who may have nothing more than allegations as the basis for the prohibition, to an unfettered search of their home and/or business within days of being accused; all this without taking into account the many issues surrounding “surrender statutes” in general, including possible violations of an individual’s right against self-incrimination.