The two sides in Hawaii’s gun-control debates generally line up behind one of two key elements in the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, which reads:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
While both elements are described as "necessary," advocates of gun control put their emphasis on the "well regulated" part, while those opposed focus on the right to "bear arms." What’s at issue in the current clash is achieving balance between those two elements.
It comes up in some form at the state Capitol almost every session. But this year the tragedy of children and adults killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., has riveted the attention of Hawaii lawmakers, like those in every other state, on the issue.
Hawaii’s gun laws are already notoriously strict, but there are some who say they should be hardened further. State Rep. Karl Rhoads is one. His measure, House Bill 30, would restrict selling or distributing ammunition to those who can prove the intended firearm is registered to them.
"I grew up on a farm, and I know there are certain situations where you need a gun," said Rhoads, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and has sponsored one of the proposed additional regulations. "But the argument that any attempt to regulate it, the next step is tyranny — the slippery slope argument — I simply don’t buy it.
"Even the right to free speech, there are certain things you can’t say," he added. "It’s not a right without limitation. None of them are absolute."
On the other side, marshalling quite a large and outspoken group of gun-rights advocates, is Harvey Gerwig, president and director of the Hawaii Rifle Association, the local affiliate of the National Rifle Association. On the local front, the HRA believes some efforts by government to restrict access to guns can amount to a form of harassment.
For example, Gerwig said, Hawaii gun dealers can’t complete a legitimate sale unless the buyer submits to a background check. The state Department of Health must check its mental health records and a private physician must sign off on the sale, among other required clearances.
He cited one anecdote from a supporter that illustrated his point.
"In Hawaii, we have on our board a doctor who treated a patient 30 years ago for bedwetting," Gerwig said. "He was denied a permit for getting a gun because the state had a record of him getting treated for this.
"He had to hire a physician to get to know him, treat him, and issue a letter of ‘no longer adversely affected,’" he added. "There needs to be clear definition on what should be a disqualifier."
In addition, there is a gun registry and a 14-day waiting period before a dealer will hand over the purchased firearm and the police will sign off. And in the case of handguns, a purchaser must go through the same process, even if little time has elapsed between purchases.
That drives Gerwig and others in the HRA to distraction. The concern about those with mental-health disorders getting firearms is a legitimate one, he said, but the state process casts too wide a net, and gun owners have little faith that either the federal or state screenings are effective.
"It takes too long to process these permits," he said. "Let’s say Joe Jones goes down and buy a handgun, and he goes through the whole procedure. For long guns (rifles), he can buy more of them within a year, but if he wants to buy another handgun, he has to go through the same process all over again.
"It should be hard for somebody mentally impacted to get a gun, but it shouldn’t be hard for someone who is not mentally impacted to get a gun."
Hawaii is known nationally for its strict gun regulation, but the Sandy Hook massacre has resuscitated some legislative efforts to tighten things up more (see related story listed below). The Honolulu Police Department, as well as law-enforcement officials from all four counties, have been the primary advocates of holding the line or even hardening it.
In a statement following the Connecticut killings, Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha said officers have been prepared for copycat behavior locally, adding that he believes Hawaii’s strict gun control laws have contributed to the state’s low rates of violent crime compared with other states.
Of course, there’s still the vivid memory of Byran Uyesugi, a Honolulu Xerox technician who shot eight co-workers, seven fatally, in 1999.
Kealoha was unavailable for comment on the latest round of legislation, but HPD has testified on Senate Bill 2. This measure, like House Bill 498, would include the use of simulated firearms among the offenses covered by the first-degree terroristic threatening and robbery charges.
"Simulated firearms are increasingly more difficult to discern from real firearms, and as a result, are being used to facilitate serious criminal offenses," Maj. Richard C. Robinson of the Criminal Investigation Division, said in prepared testimony at a hearing last week.
The restrictions on gun ownership are found in Chapter 134 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. Automatic firearms and a whole range of weapons and explosives are prohibited; convicted felons or those indicted for a felony, as well as anyone acquitted on the basis of mental defect or disease, are among those restricted from gun ownership.
It may be the HPD policy on issuance of permits to carry a concealed firearm, however, that is the biggest sticking point among gun owners. Such permits are rarely issued, only in an "exceptional circumstance," or "where a need or urgency has been sufficiently indicated."
That was the basis for a 2011 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by the nonprofit Hawaii Defense Foundation, which alleged that such restrictive criteria violated the Second Amendment’s protection of the right to bear arms. The preliminary injunction sought by the foundation was denied last year and is now on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, said the organization’s attorney, Richard Holcomb. The plaintiffs argued the appeal in San Francisco Dec. 6.
Regardless of the outcome of that case, this year gun advocates are well organized, as evidenced by the hundreds of HRA testimonies delivered last week on House Bill 426. That bill, considered relatively minor legislation, sought to repeal partial immunity from liability for gun instructors teaching state-mandated gun-safety classes. It was killed for the session, an outcome that, Rhoads said, signaled potential trouble for other pieces of legislation under consideration.
Gun-control advocacy tends to be more diffuse, with nothing approaching the focused effort of the HRA or the foundation. There are individuals who are watching the Capitol with interest, of course.
One of them is Larry Geller, a board member with Common Cause Hawaii and president of the advocacy group Kokua Council, as well as a writer who publishes the blog Disappeared News. Geller, who formerly lived in New York City, remembers being followed after a demonstration by a car from which a rifle was being waved as a threat. There was also the gunfight he witnessed in the subway. Geller, who recounts these stories without drama, is not a stranger to the subject.
He has hopes for a gradual improvement in America’s control of guns, but his expectations are modest.
"The number of guns in private hands in the USA is estimated to be upwards of 270 million," Geller wrote in an emailed response to the Star-Advertiser. "Even if all gun sales could be stopped, there are still an average of almost 90 guns per 100 population. Access to a gun will still be relatively easy.
"It will take generations of education and effective gun control to reduce that number," he said. "I strongly believe we have to get started now, but the benefit won’t be apparent for dozens of years at best."
