A federal judge has rejected the latest challenge to Hawaii gun control laws by dismissing a lawsuit filed by a Hawaii island man who claimed the statutes violate his rights under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
The ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor follows a line of Hawaii federal court decisions rejecting similar challenges to state gun laws.
Jonathan Lowy, Brady Center Legal Action Project director, hailed the ruling Friday and said the decision is also the latest nationwide upholding state restrictions on carrying guns in public.
George K. Young Jr., 62, a nonlawyer representing himself, filed his lawsuit in June claiming that state laws violate his constitutional right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.
He contended his rights were violated when Hawaii County police denied him a license to carry a concealed or unconcealed gun in public.
Young earlier filed two similar federal lawsuits that were thrown out by the federal court.
"Hawaii’s firearm carrying laws do not violate the plaintiff’s Second Amendment rights," Gillmor said in a 40-page decision filed Nov. 29.
"The carrying laws do not restrict the core protection afforded by the Second Amendment."
Lowy said they were pleased that Gillmor went out of her way to issue the "well-thought" ruling for a lawsuit filed by a nonlawyer.
Two decisions in 2008 and 2010 by the U.S. Supreme Court opened the way for a flood of challenges to state gun control laws across the country.
The rulings held the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm and that the amendment applies to states.
But Lowy said courts have been upholding "reasonable restrictions on carrying guns in public in New York, New Jersey, California and elsewhere."
He said Gillmor found that the "weight of legal authority" view of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions establish "only a narrow individual right to keep an operable handgun at home for self-defense."
Young said Gillmor is "totally wrong" in ruling that state officials are immune from the lawsuit, but said he does not plan to appeal.
Young’s suit asked for a permit to carry a concealed or unconcealed gun and at least $2 million in damages.
A similar challenge to the state gun control laws is now before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The case involves Christopher Baker, who sought a court order permitting him to carry a handgun in public.
Senior U.S. District Judge Alan Kay denied Baker’s request earlier this year.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is named after White House press secretary James Brady, who was shot in a 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
