Column: Protect Hawaii and our peaceful culture from tyranny of guns

Only one state in America has a lower gun death rate than Hawaii, thanks to our having some of the fairest and most protective gun safety laws in the country. This could soon change. Our state Legislature is currently considering bills that would allow guns to be carried on the streets in large numbers for the first time.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year made it legal to carry guns in public. So, guns are coming. Like it or not, that much is an indisputable fact. The debate in our Legislature now is how to bring Hawaii into compliance with this ruling while continuing to keep Hawaii safe.

Gun safety advocates have their backs against the wall. The pro-gun lobby is well organized and vocal: Its advocates want to be allowed to carry their guns anywhere, everywhere, all at once. If they get their way this month, we could soon see thousands of guns carried into our churches, schools, shopping malls and restaurants at any hour of the day and any day of the week.

The only things standing between us and this dystopian future is Senate Bill 1230 and House Bill 984 that are now being debated in our Legislature. Hearings on the bills are underway. A vote will be held soon afterward. If ever there were a time for the people of Hawaii to speak out in favor of gun safety, it’s now.

We can “thank” the U.S. Supreme Court for this state of affairs. Last June in a 6-3 decision, the court made it legal to allow arms to be carried outside the home in all 50 states.

But all is not yet lost. Where and when guns can be brought outside the home is still undecided. Justice Clarence Thomas’s majority ruling in the case of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen granted states the right to prohibit firearms in “sensitive places.” By not defining which places are “sensitive” and which aren’t, he left room for us to determine this for ourselves — which is why the debate now centers on how to implement “sensitive places” in ways that comply with the Supreme Court’s pro-gun decision without causing too many deaths.

A gun is a potentially lethal weapon that automatically gives its owner the power to intimidate not only the small percentage of people who are criminals but also the majority of us who are not. Will you feel safer surrounded by guns? If the gun lobby gets its way, every dispute in our ordinary public lives will suddenly have the potential to escalate to violence. Once the guns come out, an unarmed person will almost always submit to an armed person, and those bearing arms will unjustly dominate.

Aloha is a deep cultural value that people of Hawaii use to express their lives in tenderness, harmony, pleasantness, modesty and perseverance, as articulated by our respected kupuna, Aunty Pilahi Paki. The carrying of guns in public places where keiki, makua and kupuna frequent will surely cause feelings counter to aloha. The fear of brutality, conflict, rudeness, disrespect and hopelessness will result from the appearance of guns in areas we once held as safe.

There is still time to protect our traditions and preserve the peaceful culture of Hawaii’s islands. Tell your representatives to pass SB 1230 and HB 984.

Aloha McGuffie is executive vice president of Ulumau LLC; Jay Henderson is with the Indivisible Hawaii Leadership Council.