Rising from the dead over and over in end-runs around court rulings, Hawaii’s vampire gun control regulations have ping-ponged in the courts. Laws, injunctions, reversals, repeat. Since “may issue” is out and “shall issue” is de rigueur, the aloha state makes it real hard not only to carry a firearm in public, but to purchase a handgun in the first place.
Back in 2021, we had good news for our Hawaiin ohana. From Courthouse News:
The lower court in 2021 issued an injunction against two parts of the Hawaii’s gun licensing rules. The state could no longer void permits to obtain pistols or revolvers that hadn’t been used after 30 days. It also couldn’t require an applicant to present their firearm at a police station in some cases.
“Use it or lose it” was deemed too restrictive — “abusive” — for a purchase permit, as was the requirement for a police station inspection.
Unfortunately, a Ninth Circuit en banc panel just reversed this lower court’s decision and has found that these ridiculous hurdles to firearm ownership are perfectly fine. Again from Courthouse News:
The plaintiffs, Todd Yukutake and David Kikukawa, needed to show the 30-day deadline to buy a firearm and the police station inspection led to “abusive ends” and denied citizens of their Second Amendment rights, Owens said.
“And while certain background checks, firearms safety courses, lengthy wait times, exorbitant fees, or other components of a shall-issue regime could trigger the Second Amendment’s protections, nothing in plaintiffs’ complaint suggests that either the thirty-day restriction or the police station inspection requirement crosses that line,” he added. “At most, the provisions impose only modest, procedural burdens.”
Ridiculous. Attorney for the plaintiffs says he’ll be filing a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. We’ll keep an eye on this one.