2aHawaii
General Topics => Legal and Activism => Topic started by: Jess on May 20, 2013, 08:36:22 PM
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As the title says
In what year did registering a firearm in the city and county of honolulu take effect?
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1994 for long guns, IIRC.
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From what I've heard it started when the federal awb passed in 1994. Hawaii decided to register firearms and its been that way since.
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so does that mean any long guns purchased prior to were grandfathered in and dont need to be registered. Or was it mandatory?
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so does that mean any long guns purchased prior to were grandfathered in and dont need to be registered. Or was it mandatory?
I believe long guns owned before July 1994 are not required to be registered IF you don't transfer ownership. However, the police did request everyone register them anyway (not mandatory)! :crazy:
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1994 for long guns, IIRC.
Were you still required to have a permit to acquire long guns before 1994?
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Were you still required to have a permit to acquire long guns before 1994?
Yeah still needed a permit to aquire...man those were the days...buy the firearm take it home that's it
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Yeah still needed a permit to aquire...man those were the days...buy the firearm take it home that's it
Must be nice being old......er.
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Was the permit to acquire limited to dealer-consumer type transactions? What about private party to private party?
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Not too long ago I had an email conversation with Clayton Cramer (yes, that Clayton Cramer...) who in response to the conversation sent me this about the history of registration in Hawaii:
I may have found the answer. One of my readers found copies of the earlier statutes. Permit to purchase for ALL firearms goes back to 1927.
It appears from the legislative history under WestLaw that this law dates back to "Laws 1988, ch. 275, § 2." On the other hand, the Hawaii Police Department web page says,
Registration is not mandatory for rifles and shotguns acquired in the state of Hawaiʻi prior to July, 1994. However, one permit per rifle or shotgun was required for acquisitions between 1981 and July, 1994.
This suggests that there was a permit requirement starting in 1981. I have not found it yet. This article seems to have the history of it, but I have not yet found the full article anywhere. Here is the full text of that article. On p. 55, it claims that for the first time after passage of 1981 session law ch. 239, Hawaii required a permit to purchase all long guns. Another reader points to State v. Auwae (Hawaii.App. 1998) which seems to indicate that purchase permits go back much further:
1927 Sess. L., Act 206, § 4, at 209 *fn9 (emphasis added). In 1933, the legislature amended the 1927 Sess. L., Act 206, §4 to read, "No person who has been convicted . . . of having committed or attempted a crime of violence, shall own or have in his possession or under his control a pistol or revolver or ammunition therefor." 1933-34 Sess. L., Act 26, § 6, at 38. The reason for the amendment was as follows:
[T]o give the law enforcing agencies of the Territory a better means of controlling the sale, transfer and possession of firearms and ammunition. [The Bill] provides for the registration of all firearms now possessed by persons living in the Territory, prohibits the subsequent acquisition of firearms other than shotguns by non-citizens and provides an effective method of registration, etc.
House Stand. Comm. Rep. No. 89, in 1933 House Journal, at 427. The legislature did not specifically address the language of § 6 or comment on the addition of the words "or ammunition therefor."*fn10
This particular case was primarily involved with a different question, but it seems to indicate that purchase of all guns were subject to some sort of background check as early as 1933.
A reader who is very industrious and skilled in searching has found:
Revised laws of Hawaii 1945 are archived here:
http://www.llmcdigital.org/docdisplay.aspx?textid=37781834 (http://www.llmcdigital.org/docdisplay.aspx?textid=37781834)
7183 and 7186 are the bits on license and possession. They appear pretty similar to the 1935 version in snippet view on Google books as sections 2542 and 2545:
No person shall take possession of any firearms of any description, whether usable or unusable, serviceable or unserviceable, modern or antique, registered under prior law or unregistered, or of any ammunition of any kind or description, except shotgun ammunition, either through sale, gift, loan, bequest, or otherwise, whether procured in the Territory or imported by mail, express, freight, or otherwise, until he shall first have procured from the chief of police of the county wherein is his place of business, or if there be no place of business, his residence, or if there be neither place of business nor residence, his place of sojourn, a permit to acquire as prescribed herein.
It appears that Hawaii's background check law is considerably older than the beginning of useful murder rates data.
So, it looks like registration goes much further back. Furthermore, in prior discussions with Mr. Cramer, it appears that the genesis of "gun control" in Hawaii was very similar to that in the mainland reconstruction era....to control the "natives" and freed blacks, respectively.
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Not too long ago I had an email conversation with Clayton Cramer (yes, that Clayton Cramer...) who in response to the conversation sent me this about the history of registration in Hawaii: ...............
Interesting read on Clayton Cramer. I had not heard of him before.
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So, it looks like registration goes much further back. Furthermore, in prior discussions with Mr. Cramer, it appears that the genesis of "gun control" in Hawaii was very similar to that in the mainland reconstruction era....to control the "natives" and freed blacks, respectively.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGYFRzf2Xww&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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Interesting read on Clayton Cramer. I had not heard of him before.
Nice guy...submitted an amicus for the Heller case if I recall correctly