A Kauai mailman who has a 20-year history of mental problems and twice served sentences for criminal offenses was able to obtain permits from police to acquire dozens of firearms, raising questions about how someone with that kind of background could accumulate so many weapons.
Federal agents recently recovered nearly 50 firearms and more than 23,000 rounds of ammunition from Troy Haruki Hamura’s home in Lihue as part of a firearms investigation of the postal carrier. Thirty of the weapons were registered in Hamura’s name, while 17 others, including a machine gun, were unregistered, according to court records.
Hamura, a former federally licensed gun dealer, suffers from manic depression and schizo-affected bipolar problems, experiences abnormal mood swings and distortions of perception, and is taking antidepressant and antipsychotic medications, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Hino told a federal magistrate last month.
Hino quoted the medical information from a confidential pretrial court report on Hamura. Hino is prosecuting Hamura, who faces two federal firearms charges, including possessing the machine gun, an M-16A1 assault rifle.
Hamura’s case illustrates how someone with an extensive history of serious mental problems and several brushes with the law still can legally acquire large quantities of firearms and ammunition. Hamura apparently was able to do so because his record fell short of the legal threshold that would have allowed police to block the acquisitions, the Star-Advertiser found.
"I’m totally shocked," said Kauai resident Joe Neil, whose federal firearms license Hamura allegedly used without Neil’s authorization to buy guns through the mail. "How can he get permits to acquire weapons? That’s scary. That’s frightening."
Hamura’s case has attracted even more interest in the wake of the Aurora, Colo., theater shooting last month in which 12 people were killed and 58 were wounded. The suspect, James E. Holmes, was arrested soon after. His attorneys have indicated that Holmes is mentally ill.
"If you look at the shooting that just occurred in Aurora, there’s a national furor over the fact that the suspect in that case had 6,000 rounds of ammunition, which people seem to think is a lot," Hino told Magistrate Judge Richard Puglisi at Hamura’s initial court appearance, just days after the July 20 theater tragedy. "The defendant here had 23,000 rounds of ammunition."
Hamura is accused of devising a scheme whereby he would illegally use a Kauai gun dealer’s federal firearms license to buy guns from the mainland, have them mailed to the Kauai dealer and intercept them en route. Hamura admitted to acquiring 15 to 20 guns in this fashion using Neil’s license, according to court documents.
State law bans anyone convicted of a violent crime — or even one that includes a threat of injury — from owning or possessing firearms. The same prohibition applies to anyone convicted of any type of felony.
Hamura fell just short of those thresholds twice.
In 1994 he was charged with physically abusing a family or household member but subsequently pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of harassment, records show. The court granted his request to wipe the offense from his record because he stayed out of trouble for a year. Under Hawaii law, that meant he never was convicted.
Had Hamura been convicted of either charge, he would not have been able to to acquire firearm permits from then on.
According to figures from the state attorney general’s office, police throughout Hawaii last year denied eight permits because of harassment convictions and an additional 30 because of convictions for abusing a family or household member.
In 2005, Hamura, who frequently ran newspaper ads offering used guns for sale, again got into trouble with the law but still was able to continue his weapon acquisitions.
Authorities initially charged Hamura with two felony counts related to where his weapons were kept. A conviction on either one would have prevented Hamura from legally buying guns.
But he subsequently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor ammunition-related offense and received a year’s probation, records show.
As part of the 2005 sentence, the court ordered Hamura to continue mental health treatment until clinically discharged and to forfeit a rifle and 10 rounds of .308-caliber ammunition, according to court documents.
It wasn’t clear from court records whether Hamura owned other guns at the time. But records from the Kauai Police Department show that he continued obtaining permits in the years after his conviction.
Since 2008, police issued 28 firearm permits to Hamura, including 17 in one month in 2008, the department said. It wasn’t able to provide figures before 2008.
The statistics don’t indicate whether Hamura’s permits were for handguns or rifles. A rifle permit is good for one year and can be used to acquire multiple weapons. For handguns a permit is needed for each acquisition.
In addition to the court cases, Hamura’s mental illness had the potential to derail his legal gun purchases.
State law says that anyone adversely affected by a significant behaviorial, emotional or mental disorder — as defined by the American Psychiatric Association diagnostic manual — cannot own or possess firearms or ammunition.
Manic depression, bipolar disorder and schizo-affected bipolar disorder — the three mentioned at Hamura’s hearing — are each considered significant mental ailments by the association, according to Dr. Howard Zonana, a Yale University psychiatry professor and member of the association’s judicial action committee.
Zonana said the three psychotic disorders are treatable but not curable.
Asked whether it would be disconcerting for someone afflicted with all three to own many firearms, Zonana said, "It’s very hard to generalize. Some people with the disorders function quite well. Others may not."
Kauai police did not respond to questions about how Hamura was able to obtain firearm permits given his mental history.
Permit applications include a question about whether the applicant has ever been diagnosed with a significant mental disorder, and applicants must give police permission to access any records bearing on their mental health. Providing false answers is a Class C felony.
Keith Shigetomi, Hamura’s lawyer, told the Star-Advertiser that his client’s mental issues never rose to a level that would have prevented him from owning guns. In order for such a prohibition to be imposed, a person would have to be deemed a danger to himself or others, and Hamura’s doctor found no indication of that being the case, Shigetomi said.
At Hamura’s initial court appearance last month, Shigetomi said a pretrial services recommendation that the suspect be released to supervision on Kauai was reasonable, given the assessment of Hamura’s physician that he doesn’t display violent behavior and has no such risk factors.
Shigetomi also noted that Hamura has no substance abuse problem, has been employed full time for the past 25 years, is a lifelong resident of Hawaii and has cooperated with federal investigators.
Shigetomi told the court he couldn’t explain his client’s behavior while agents were at his Lihue home.
Hamura initially was cooperative, then suddenly bolted to a nearby safe, grabbed a rifle with a scope and darted into a bathroom. The agents drew their weapons and eventually coaxed Hamura out, after which he became cooperative again.
"Clearly, there was a matter of some panic but no overreaction on his part," Shigetomi said of the rifle incident.
Hino objected to Hamura’s release, citing the suspect’s mental history, access to firearms and added stresses resulting from the criminal case. He told the judge that authorities had no way of knowing how many guns Hamura acquired through his postal scheme and to whom he sold them.
"He basically could order any weapon he wanted any time as long as he intercepted the mail," Hino said.
Puglisi said releasing Hamura so he could return to his house wasn’t a good idea, given the large quantity of firearms and ammunition he had accumulated and his bizarre behavior with the agents. Instead, the judge approved Hamura’s release to a halfway house on Oahu.
Authorities began investigating Hamura after someone allegedly bought an unregistered firearm from him, then tried to register it with police. Because the gun had not previously been registered on Kauai, the buyer could not register it. Investigators traced the gun to a Florida dealer who sold it to Hamura, according to court documents.
If convicted, Hamura faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count.
