Even with a ruling from the nation’s highest court, it’s going to take some time — a lot of time, most likely — to determine where the state will finally land on the issue of gun rights.
On Thursday the city took a step to inject some public-safety weight in the equation, laying out where firearms would be prohibited, should a draft law submitted by Mayor Rick Blangiardi be passed.
Additionally, this week a set of amended rules for Honolulu’s police chief to use for weighing applications for gun permits will be heard. The hearing is set for 10 a.m. Tuesday at Honolulu Police Department’s headquarters; details can be found at tinyurl.com/hpd-ltc-draft-rules. Testimony can be submitted by email to HPDLTC@honolulu.gov.
The question remains: How much of these proposed positions would be intact once legal challenges that are almost certain to surface finally work their own way through the courts?
However it ends, Hawaii does have its own long history of restricting guns in the public sphere. So it’s good to see Honolulu being among the jurisdictions asserting the continuation, to some measure, of those protections.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled on New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a landmark decision hailed by those who champion gun rights as defending the constitutional right to bear arms.
For their part, gun-regulation advocates in states where rules are relatively strict — Hawaii and New York among them — point to parts of the ruling aligned with their cause. These include language in Bruen that endorses the option of gun licensing, the designation of sensitive places not suited to having ready access to firearms, the prohibition of dangerous and unusual weapons and the limiting of guns to those who abide by the law.
Finding more precisely where the courts will allow lines to be drawn will be the project of coming months and years. So far, the limits are being tested by individual county jurisdictions.
Hawaii and Maui counties were the first municipalities here to revise rules on licenses to carry firearms. As on Oahu, the focus is on regulating to whom permits for carrying a concealed weapon would be issued.
The requirements for a concealed-carry permit on the Big Island, for which 30 applications have been submitted, include a proficiency test. The Maui Police Department has a license process in place and has issued 11 concealed-carry licenses to nine people. Kauai County is finalizing its application forms for permits to carry guns.
The preferred action would be for state lawmakers to at least set some statewide standards as a uniform framework, so that Hawaii would not be left with a confusing patchwork of rules. That should be high on the agenda when the Legislature convenes in January.
But for now, the Oahu approach is one of caution — and rightly so. More than 477 applications to carry a gun have been received.
If the Blangiardi proposals pass, violations of the City and County of Honolulu ordinance would be misdemeanors. Among the provisions of the draft law and revised HPD rules:
>> Every applicant for a concealed-carry license must successfully complete a firearms certification program, which includes lectures on firearms safety and proper handling, a written exam and a shooting proficiency test.
>> Bearers of that license would be barred from carrying the guns in schools, banks, government buildings, parks, voting locations and on public transportation. The restriction would extend to retail stores and industrial, commercial or wholesale establishments, as well as bars and restaurants serving alcohol.
Other gun-free zones would be child-care facilities and other places frequented by children, such as the Honolulu Zoo, Waikiki Aquarium, Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve and the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center.
>> The default would be to ban guns at private businesses and charitable organizations, but enable the property owners to decide to allow them.
If this sounds highly restrictive, it is. Opponents are likely to argue that the barriers excessively curtail the right, which they say is guaranteed by the Second Amendment, to bear arms in their own defense in public.
However, there is ample data showing the wisdom of erecting some sturdy guardrails against a widespread presence of guns in public. Gun violence, especially deaths by suicide, is at higher rates in states with the fewest gun laws, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The proliferation of guns plainly puts more lives at risk.
In the view expressed by the Supreme Court in Bruen, gun ownership is a fundamental and historical American right. But there is more history that should be in the mix: the history of gun regulation, which is also quite long — 170 years in Hawaii. It has kept Hawaii residents safer.
Maintaining a level of gun restriction in this violent world is simply prudent. That stance is also worth the legal battle, however long.
