State of Hawaii Steals Millions of Dollars From Gun Owners
State of Hawaii collects fees associated with non-functioning federal services to collect funds from Hawaii gun owners who get no service provided in return.
Currently, Hawaii requires all persons in the state to pay a fee for a criminal background check and to be entered into the FBI Rap Back system if they wish to obtain or register a firearm.
Hawaii passed a law in 2016 that requires enrollment into the FBI Rap Back system. They started collecting funds in December of that year. The enrollment into Rap Back causes the person to be entered into a federal database where their fingerprints are run against all arrest records and against latent fingerprints from crime scenes to determine if that person is a criminal. This check is not just done on past fingerprints, but all fingerprints collected into the future. Therefore, owning a firearm in Hawaii makes you a suspect to any crime the FBI encounters.
The Rap Back system also uses a reporting function where: if a person is arrested anywhere in the United States of America, the state and county police departments would be notified and would then determine if that person’s actions (elsewhere) would prelude them from owning firearms in Hawaii.
To do so, the state and counties require the firearm applicant, or person registering a firearm, to sign a waiver of their 4th amendment right. Thus, allowing themselves to be entered into the system.
The FBI says that the Rap Back system is voluntary for non-criminal use. Hawaii makes it required by law. If you don’t sign the waiver, you can’t own a firearm. In fact, if someone refuses to sign the waiver when registering a firearm, the county police departments will seize the firearm. They can then arrest you for failure to register the firearm within the required time limit.
During the March 15th hearings for bills relating to firearms at the Hawaii State Capital, it was brought to light that the State of Hawaii, via the Hawaii County Police Department, has been collecting funds from firearms owners along with consent forms in relation to the FBI Rap Back program. The fee for fingerprinting an enrollment currently stands at $43.25.
The problem with this is the system is not set up. The State has no firearm owners enrolled in the Rap Back system.
During the year of 2017, the State of Hawaii had 40,635 firearms registered. Enrollment into the Rap Back system is required to register a firearm or must have been done previously when obtaining a permit to acquire that firearm. This would lead us to believe that the state collected more than $1.7 million from firearm owners. Even though the system required is not in place. If a similar number of firearms were registered in 2018 (report will not be available until May) this number could be as much as $3 million.
Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center is paid the fees collected by the counties, which are meant to be used to process fingerprints, and for entry of the individual’s information into the FBI Rap Back database. Currently, the fees cover the cost of processing all the data for the individual. However, if the cost were to rise, the fees would fall short. Thus, resulting in a hefty expense to the state. A price increase of $0.50 per entry would result in the state having to find an extra $40,000 or more.
Firearm owners are being charged these fees due to the state’s requirement that they pay for the Rap Back service to be provided to them. So far, no service is being provided. It has been more than two years and we’re being led to believe that it will never be available. WHY are they still being charged? Why would you collect funds for a service that’s not available? It’s like paying an electricity bill, but not being hooked up the grid.
We feel the state’s purpose is to dissuade those who believe that their right to privacy is as equally as important as their right to bear arms. We also feel, some people who would otherwise purchase a firearm, simply will not pay for and sign away their other rights to do so.
The State of Hawaii and the county police departments not only owe firearm owners in Hawaii an apology, until the system is working correctly and is available for use, they also need to stop collecting funds and personal data for the Rap Back system. They should also need to refund people who have paid fees with no service provided. We feel that this is equivalent to theft. If anyone else collected money for a service they are unable to provide, criminal charges would shortly follow. Therefore, we feel, there are wrongs that need to be righted.
Hawaii firearms Coalition has set up a webform for Hawaii firearm owners to request a refund of the fees associated with Rap Back. You can find the form at
www.hifico.org/rapback.
Once completed, the form will automatically e-mail the Attorney General’s office, requesting a refund for the fees collected and associated with Rap Back.
Andrew Namiki Roberts
DIRECTOR Hawaii Firearms Coalition