Hawaii: Gun Control Measures Introduced With More on the Way

From NRA-ILA, January 19, 2020

The Hawaii Legislature opened on Wednesday and an onslaught of bills targeting your Second Amendment Rights have been introduced. Below, find a brief description of the more significant anti-gun bills that were introduced this week. 

House Bill 1599, House Bill 1734, and Senate Bill 2152 would change the permitting system for the purchase of rifles and shotguns (long guns) to match the procedure currently in place for handgun purchases. This would require an individual to obtain a permit from the police each and every time they wished to purchase a long gun that would only be valid for 10 days. Whereas now, only one permit is required to purchase any number of long guns, and is valid for a year. It goes without saying that these bills create an onerous and unnecessary new burden on law abiding citizens who wish to purchase long guns for sport, hunting, or home defense.

House Bill 1733 and Senate Bill 2151 would prohibit the purchase and manufacture of certain firearms parts by private individuals in an effort to ban home built firearms.  The legislation is vague and overly broad as to what exactly could constitute a part or parts that could subject a person to felony penalties. This legislation fails to recognize that prohibited persons already cannot lawfully possess any firearm, whether home built or produced by a licensed manufacturer. 

House Bill 1736 and Senate Bill 2154 would prohibit possession of magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds. These so called “high capacity” magazines are in fact standard equipment for commonly-owned firearms that many Americans legally and effectively use for an entire range of legitimate purposes, such as self-defense or competition. The bill recognizes the utility of these magazines by carving out an exemption for law enforcement, but would still violate the rights of ordinary citizens. It contains no “grandfathering” provision for affected magazines lawfully acquired prior to the ban, so citizens would be forced to dispose of their property, alter it, or surrender it to the government.

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HB1598 - HIFICO’s position: OPPOSE

From Hawaii Firearms Coalition January 16, 2020

HB1598 on the surface seems like a good idea, it would take the decision to issue carry permits away from the county police departments and move it to the Attorney General office.

The reason we oppose this bill is it would still provide that permits are MAY issue, this keeps the status quo, where a person is not guaranteed to be issued a permit should they apply.

The fee for the permit is cost-prohibitive, the claim is being made that the $100 price tag in this bill is to cover the actual cost of issuing the permit. A person applying for a permit would have already undergone a strict vetting process when obtaining their firearm, a NICS check takes less than 30 minutes to conduct and is free when ran by an approved agency. Honolulu issues driver licenses that are valid for two years and cost only $10.

The training requirements in this bill would require a person to have take the basic pistol course within the last 6 months. This would mean a person applying for a permit every year would, in fact, have to take the basic pistol course each and every year. On average the cost of the pistol course is $150. This in combination with the license fee would equate to $250 each and every year just to be able to defend themselves.

Depending on the study you look (A) at between 3.5 and 7.7 percent of the adult population have a concealed carry permit. If Hawaii was to start issuing permits and we applied the same percentages Hawaii would have to issue somewhere between 35,000 and 77,000 permits each year. At $100 per permit, the AG’s office would incur an income of 3.5-7.7 million dollars a year, this is between 5-10% of the AG’s total budget (B).

With Hawaii issuing permits only for 1 year even on the low end of the estimate the AG’s office would need to process 134 permits a day 5 days a week to be able to hand them all. Whereas issuing a 5-year permit as is done in most states (C) that number becomes much more manageable at 26 a day. The fee also becomes much more manageable at $20 per year (based on $100 per license)

(A) https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/03/06/fact-check-what-percentage-of-americans-have-concealed-carry-permits/

(B) https://ballotpedia.org/Attorney_General_of_Hawaii

(C) https://www.cga.ct.gov/2013/rpt/2013-R-0048.htm See less

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2020 BILLS -- DAY ONE OF THE LEGISLATIVE SESSION AND WE HAVE 6 FIREARMS RELATED BILLS.

From Hawaii Firearms Coalition January 16, 2020

Current list of Bills introduced in the 2020 legislative session.

Check out the list below.

HB1598 : License to Carry Firearms; Concealed Carry; Open Carry; AG; County Chiefs of Police.

HB1599 : Permits to Obtain Rifles and Shotguns.

HB1600 : Firearms; Lending; Possession; Ownership; Background Checks.

HB1615 : Firearms; Possession Prohibited While Intoxicated.

HB1640 : Gun Violence; Short Form.

SB2002 : Firearms; Possession Prohibited While Intoxicated.

HIFICO OPPOSES EACH OF THESE BILLS AS WRITTEN.