News Release from Hawaii Attorney General’s office:

The Department of the Attorney General released its annual report detailing state firearm registration statistics for Calendar Year 2010.

A record high total of 12,801 personal/private firearm permit applications were processed statewide during 2010, marking a 1.5% increase from the previous record high of 12,606 applications processed in 2009.  Of the applications processed in 2010, 95.4% were approved and resulted in issued permits; 3.6% were approved but subsequently voided after the applicants failed to return for their permits within a specified time period; and 1.0% were rejected due to one or more disqualifying factors.

The 12,214 permits issued statewide in 2010 cover a total of 31,390 firearms registered, marking a 6.8% decrease from the record high tally of 33,678 firearms registered in 2009. Just under half (15,212, or 48.5%) of the firearms registered during 2010 were imported from out-of-state, with the remainder (16,178, or 51.5%) accounted for by in-state transfers (i.e., firearms that were already in Hawaii).

Firearm registration activity increased dramatically over the course of the eleven years for which these data have been systematically compiled and reported. From 2000 through 2010, the number of permit applications processed annually increased by 97.3%, the number of firearms registered surged 130.5%, and the number of firearms imported rose 110.5%.

The vast majority of the 134 total rejections in Hawaii during 2010 were for longarm (110, or 89.4%) rather than handgun (13, or 10.6%) permit applications.  Following a trend since this annual report was first published, longarm (i.e., rifles and shotguns) permit applications in 2010 were rejected at a rate that is several times higher than the rejection rate for handgun permit applications (1.4% for longarm permit applications versus 0.3% for handgun permit applications).

It is a felony in the State of Hawaii to provide falsified information on firearm permit applications, unless the falsified information does not pertain to criminal or mental health histories, in which case it is a misdemeanor offense.  In 2010, falsified criminal and/or mental health information was provided in 64.2% (79) of the 134 rejection cases; falsified information pertaining to anything other than criminal or mental health histories was provided in 3.3% (4) of the cases; and no falsified information was provided in 32.5% (40) of the cases.

The full report can be downloaded from the Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division web site at hawaii.gov/ag/cpja