Isle legislators mull gun bills

Chapter 134 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes is the home of the state’s gun laws. The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (smartgunlaws.org/hawaii-state-law-summary/) and the Hawaii Rifle Association (hawaiirifleassociation.org — click on the "Hawaii Gun Laws" link on the left) are among the sites that provide summaries.

Hawaii residents must have a permit, issued by county police departments, to acquire a firearm. The strict process governing these permits is at the heart of the state’s reputation for some of the nation’s strictest laws, most of which have been in place for decades.

But there are annual efforts to amend them, with more legislation than usual poised for consideration in 2013, most aimed at tightening regulation. Among the major bills:

» Senate Bill 36, among other changes, would require annual renewals of firearm registrations.

» SB 69 would appropriate $100,000 to county police departments to initiate a gun buy-back program.

» SB 219 would ban "assault weapons," a class of semiautomatic firearms.

» SB 932 would create a database of persons prohibited form possessing firearms that would be accessible to law enforcement, mental health professionals and firearms dealers.

» House Bill 30 would confine selling or distributing ammunition to those who can prove the intended firearm is registered to them.

» HB 498 would include the use of simulated firearms among the offenses covered by the first-degree terroristic threatening and robbery charges.

» HB 603 would allow the use of deadly force when protecting one’s primary dwelling against an intruder.

» SB 274 would define the criteria under which the county police chief "shall grant a license to carry a concealed pistol or revolver."