Question: Regarding gun registrations in Hawaii (808ne.ws/gunreg), are those all the guns in the state?
Answer: No, the 40,635 firearms mentioned represent only guns registered in 2017. Hawaii’s Department of the Attorney General publishes an annual report with firearm registration statistics for each calendar year.
Q: So how many guns are there altogether?
A: Likely well over a million, although it’s impossible to say exactly, since there is no way to track the number of firearms that permanently leave the state. The report, “Firearm Registrations in Hawaii, 2017,” says that conservative estimates in the late 1990s (before annual registration reports were compiled) put the number of privately owned firearms in Hawaii at “at least one million” and that another 561,257 firearms were registered from 2000 to 2017. That would bring the total to roughly 1.56 million guns. However, that number does not account for guns that have left the state, moving with their owners, for example. There’s no way to track that and therefore no way to know the precise number of privately owned firearms in Hawaii, according to the report, which you can download at ag.hawaii.gov/cpja/rs.
Q: Are you allowed to walk in bike lanes? I keep seeing this, and it doesn’t seem right or safe.
A: No, people should not walk in bike lanes when there is a sidewalk available, per Section 291C-76(a) of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. “Where sidewalks are provided it shall be unlawful for any pedestrian to walk along and upon an adjacent roadway, bicycle lane, or bicycle path,” the law states.
However, if there is no sidewalk, the pedestrian may walk along the road, and should do so “on the left side of the roadway or its shoulder facing traffic which may approach from the opposite direction,” per HRS 291C-78(b).
That latter point answers another Kokua Line question asking whether pedestrians should go with the traffic flow: No. In this situation, walk against traffic so you can see oncoming vehicles.
Q: I keep getting a call from someone yelling in what seems to be Chinese. I don’t speak it. At first I thought it was a wrong number and tried to tell them that, but the call keeps coming in and I am not even sure whether it is a real person or a recording.
A: It sounds like you may have been targeted by thieves impersonating the Chinese Consulate, although their threats were lost on you because you don’t speak Mandarin.
Earlier this month Hawaii’s Office of Consumer Protection put out a news release warning people about this scam, which targets ethnically Chinese people, especially recent immigrants. People throughout the United States, including in Hawaii, have reported “receiving calls or messages in Mandarin Chinese demanding payment in exchange for a package or requesting information to prevent punishment from the consulate office. The caller then asks for bank or credit card information and instructs the consumers to transfer money to them,” according to the news release.
The call might appear as if it is coming from a real Chinese Consulate number, but it’s not; that number is being “spoofed.” Anyone who receives such a call should immediately hang up and not provide any information.
Mahalo
Kudos to Honolulu Urban Forestry! I reported a downed tree blocking a sidewalk in my Kailua neighborhood. Within four hours it was removed. I was told they would return to remove the stump and replant a new tree. How nice! — Gratefully, Lily
Mahalo
Mahalo to the person who returned my wallet to TheBus lost and found. It was left on bus No. 933 on May 20. May you be blessed. — Mahalo, Patrick
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
