Question: I heard they are having another gun amnesty. Will they have a better traffic plan because last time traffic was so bad I never made it. I still have the guns I wanted to drop off last time.
Answer: The gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 24 will be held at Aloha Stadium, so traffic should not be the problem it was on Oct. 21, when guns were dropped off at the Department of Health parking lot and traffic backed up on Punchbowl Street and beyond. The DOH won’t be a drop-off site this time.
Here are the details about the upcoming event, according to a news release from the state Department of Law Enforcement and an accompanying flier:
>> Scheduled for Aug. 24 (a Saturday) at the Aloha Stadium Lower Parking lot, 99-500 Salt Lake Blvd., from 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m.
>> Officials will collect unloaded firearms with no questions asked and no ID required. People can turn in working or nonworking firearms.
>> Foodland gift cards worth $200 will be given for automatic firearms of any type, semi-automatic rifles and ghost guns. Foodland gift cards worth $100 will be given for handguns, rifles, shotguns, bump stocks and Glock switches.
>> There is no limit on the number of firearms a person can turn in, but there is a limit on the number of Foodland gift certificates they can receive. No one will receive more than three gift cards.
>> Licensed gun dealers and active and retired law enforcement officers aren’t eligible to participate.
>> At the drop-off, the unloaded firearm must be in a container or box in the vehicle’s trunk. An official will retrieve the gun from the trunk and the person turning it in will stay in the car.
>> Officials on-site will reserve the right to refuse acceptance of firearms or issuance of gift cards.
>> Gun locks will be distributed for free at the event.
“Many people in the community are faced with the question of what to do with a firearm in the home that is no longer wanted or needed. The DLE’s community gun buyback event is a convenient way to safely turn in firearms that people in the community no longer want to keep,” Department of Law Enforcement Deputy Director Jared Redulla said in the news release.
Q: Regarding mopeds, I thought you only had to register them once?
A: No, it hasn’t been like that for years. “Act 200 of the Hawaii Session Laws of 2016 eliminated permanent moped registration and requires annual registration and safety inspection of all mopeds,” according to Honolulu’s Department of Customer Services, which provides detailed instructions about registering a brand-new moped bought from a dealer, renewing a moped registration, getting a safety inspection and transferring moped ownership at www8. honolulu.gov/csd/ moped-registration.
Auwe
Auwe to a man who lays down on the mauka sidewalk in Niu Valley along Kalanianaole Highway with his feet protruding out into the bike lane and sometimes even farther into the street. This is dangerous for him, and it’s also dangerous for bicyclists who have to get by him and he also makes the sidewalk impassable for people in wheelchairs as well. Many kupuna live in Niu Valley and some of us walk or roll to the bus stop on that sidewalk and this guy makes it difficult. — Frustrated pedestrian
Mahalo
I never expected to be assisted by a tourist when I am the local but that is what happened in Waikiki recently when a young man ran after me after something fell out of my purse and fluttered to the ground near the Hale Koa hotel. Perhaps I should not assume he was a tourist but I think he was; he might have been a serviceman. Regardless, he was a huge help because it was my parking stub that had landed on the sidewalk without me noticing. Mahalo. — A reader
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
