Hawaii gun owner experience: I bought a gun in Hawaii when I lived there. I had to take an all-day class, wait ten days, get fingerprinted, give my permission to contact the mental-health department of the local hospital to see if I had ever been a patient there, and register my gun with the Police after they inspected it. BTW, my gun was considered an “assault-WEAPON” because it came standard with 15-round magazines. They had to be swapped for 10-rounders before I could take possession. New Jersey and California have nutty gun laws but Hawaii is in the competition for craziest.
Plaintiffs in a case out of Hawaii have scored a major win against the draconian laws that regulate pistol permits and registration. Yukutake v. Connors involves two individuals challenging both the 10 day permit validation timeframe and requirement for in person inspection of arms by the police. All-star lawyers, Alan Beck and Stephen Stamboulieh challenged the Hawaii statutes which read in part:
134-2(e) …
Permits issued to acquire any pistol or revolver shall be void unless used within ten days after the date of issue.
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Dealers licensed under section 134-31 or dealers licensed by the United States Department of Justice shall register firearms pursuant to this section on registration forms prescribed by the attorney general and shall not be required to have the firearms physically inspected by the chief of police at the time of registration.
The opinion delivered by Judge Michael Seabright for the District Court of Hawaii picked apart the statute. Even under intermediate scrutiny, the state failed to argue that the provisions of the law have relevance to the interests of public safety. The state is unable to prove this because there is no such evidence that any of these schemes are ever effective in protecting the public at large, in any jurisdictions. From the opinion:
