Hawaii’s flawed ‘concealed carry’ law makes us easy victims

France and California, like the state of Hawaii, have effectively disarmed their citizens and rendered them defenseless in the misguided notion that doing so enhances their safety.

Well, we all saw how that turned out in Paris and most recently, in San Bernadino: No one in those attacks was armed except the terrorists, no one was able to return fire, and as a direct consequence of both France’s and California’s stringent gun controls, dozens of individuals are dead who might otherwise still be alive had one or more of the victims been armed.

This will happen again on U.S. soil. And when it does, you can bet the attackers will have carefully researched the gun laws governing the intended attack site, calculated their chances of resistance by armed citizens, identified “gun-free” zones, and made their selection based on those sites where resistance is least likely to be encountered.

Hawaii’s onerous and legally invalidated gun laws identify it as an ideal candidate for such an attack.

Why is that?

No one in Hawaii can get a permit to carry a concealed weapon for the purpose of self-defense unless it can be proved that the applicant’s life is in imminent danger.

Because of Hawaii’s general refusal to issue concealed carry permits, none of the attendees in a terrorist attack that occurs here would have a weapon and would therefore be totally defenseless.

You have the Hawaii Legislature to thank for this, and when an event such as occurred in France and California happens here, and the unarmed citizens of Hawaii are slaughtered at will by terrorists, you can ask your elected representatives why they willingly and purposely subjected their constituents to such a horrendous fate.

Or, you can ask them right now.

Demand an answer from state lawmakers to this question: Why have you enacted legislation that renders me defenseless in the face of a terrorist attack, and why have you not repealed or amended it in light of the federal court’s ruling that Hawaii’s concealed carry gun laws are unconstitutional?”

In March 2014, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Hawaii’s concealed carry permit law was unconstitutional. Unconstitutional — meaning that your state government, purportedly acting in your best interests, has intentionally denied you your constitutional right to defend yourselves and thereby conferred upon you the status of “victim” rather than survivor.

This law remains on Hawaii’s books while the state prepares an appeal, which could take years. Better hope the appeal fails and your Second Amendment rights are reinstated before the attack occurs because it will when you least expect it, and you’d better be prepared to defend yourself because the police are logistically incapable of doing so. Just as they were in Paris and San Bernadino.

The world has changed since Hawaii’s gun laws were enacted. It is a much more dangerous place, particularly for individuals, because of the terrorist threat, and state legislators need to amend those laws to reconcile that disconnect and restore Second Amendment rights to the residents of Hawaii. And they need to do it now.

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ON VACATION:

“On Politics” columnist Richard Borreca is on vacation.

Dick Porter is a retired Navy captain and a former business area manager for Lockheed Martin Corp. involved in ship design and construction programs in Hawaii.