Firearm registrations dipped by 6.1% in Hawaii in 2022, bucking a trend of increasing gun ownership over the past couple of decades.
The numbers are found in the state attorney general’s annual report on statewide and county firearm registration statistics for 2022, released Tuesday.
Hawaii is the only state in the nation that requires all firearms to be registered.
A total of 21,881 firearms permit applications were processed statewide during 2022, a drop from the 23,299 applications processed the year before, according to the report.
Of the applications processed in 2022, 96.2% were approved, and another 1.3% were approved but later voided after the applicants failed to return for their permits within a specified time period.
Only 2.5% of the firearm permit applications were denied due to one or more disqualifying factors, the largest factor being medical cannabis use for the second year in a row.
Some 230 medical cannabis patients were denied a permit in 2022, according to the report. The number represents more than 40% of those who were denied, followed by those with mental health-related issues at 26%.
The permits issued statewide in 2022 accounted for 51,883 firearms registered throughout the year, a 9.1% decrease from the 57,091 firearms registered during 2021.
Just over half of the firearms registered during 2022 were imported from out of state, with the balance being transfers of firearms previously registered here. Rifles and shotguns comprised 44.3% (22,939) and 10.3% (5,340) of total registrations, respectively. The remaining 45.5% (23,604) of firearms registered throughout 2022 were handguns.
Despite the dip in permits, firearm registrations have risen dramatically since the state-mandated report was first compiled 23 years ago, said Paul Perrone, the department’s chief of research and statistics.
Going back to 2000, the number of statewide permit applications annually processed have ballooned by 237.2%, while the number of firearms annually registered reached 281%, and the number of firearms annually imported jumped by 313.8%, Perrone said.
The middle of 2022 saw the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Hawaii’s law restricting who can have a permit to carry a handgun in public, and Hawaii’s law enforcement agencies have moved to open conceal-carry permits to the general gun-owning public.
Whether that law affects firearm registrations in 2023 is uncertain, Perrone said.
The annual report, titled “Firearm Registrations in Hawaii, 2022,” offers additional statistics on firearm permits, registrations and denials statewide and in each of the four counties.
The full report can be downloaded from the Department of the Attorney General’s Research and Statistics website at ag.hawaii.gov/cpja/rs.
Carrying a weapon
Hawaii firearm registration statistics for 2022:
>> Firearm registration permits down 6.1%.
>> Registered firearms down 9.1%.
Since 2000
>> Firearms registration permits up 237.2%.
>> Registered firearms up 281%.
Source: State Department of the Attorney General
