ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE
A panel of three judges handed down a split, 2-1 opinion that said Hawaii’s legal requirement for getting a license to carry a firearm in public violated the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to bear arms. Hawaii-based Judge Richard Clifton was the minority and wrote a dissenting opinion.
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The state appears to be getting ready to appeal last month’s 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion striking down the portion of Hawaii’s firearm licensing law that effectively prohibits carrying a firearm in public.
State Attorney General spokesman James Walther said no decision has been made as to what action, if any, the state will take in the wake of the July 24 opinion.
The state, however, had asked for an extension to file a petition for a rehearing and a petition for a rehearing by a larger panel of judges than the one that handed down last month’s opinion. The appeals court granted the request Thursday. The state now has until Sept. 14 to file its petitions.
A panel of three judges handed down a split,
2-1 opinion that said
Hawaii’s legal requirement for getting a license to carry a firearm in public violated the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to bear arms. Hawaii-based Judge Richard Clifton was the minority and wrote a dissenting opinion.
Hawaii law allows the chief of police of each county to grant a license to carry a loaded handgun in public only in exceptional cases in which an applicant shows reason to fear injury to himself or his property. The court said the exceptional requirement infringes on the rights of reasonable, law-abiding citizens to openly carry a firearm to defend themselves outside their homes.
The judge who wrote last month’s majority opinion also wrote the majority
2-1 opinion in 2014 striking down San Diego County’s requirement for getting a license to carry a concealed firearm in public. In a rehearing, eight of 11 9th Circuit judges in 2016 sided with San Diego and found no Second Amendment right to carry concealed firearms in public. The losing side appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.