Honolulu Police Department (Official Site)
This morning at 2:45 am HPD officers observed a group of males hanging out near a closed retail business in the Kapahuluu area, some of them appeared to go towards the rear of the business. Officers went to investigate and during the contact one of the males a 20 yr. old was found to be in possession of a handgun. He was subsequently arrested for the place to keep offense

Seems pretty obvious to me that the perps were up to no good, but could the officers have charged them with anything else? (I posted a reply on FB asking if the gun was legally registered to the suspect.)

Quote

Honolulu Police Department (Official Site)
This morning at 2:45 am HPD officers observed a group of males hanging out near a closed retail business in the Kapahuluu area, some of them appeared to go towards the rear of the business. Officers went to investigate and during the contact one of the males a 20 yr. old was found to be in possession of a handgun. He was subsequently arrested for the place to keep offense

Seems pretty obvious to me that the perps were up to no good, but could the officers have charged them with anything else? (I posted a reply on FB asking if the gun was legally registered to the suspect.)

And the response was? 

The fact that bad laws do occassionally get put to good use doesn't make them tolerable.  If we stopped allowing freedom of speech, sure it might get a few radical Islamist imams tossed in the slammer before they got a chance to brainwash the next generation of psychotics, but that wouldn't make it an ok idea.  I'm sure these yahoos could have been run in for something else, even without Hawaii's nonsensical gun laws.  I wonder if he was carrying concealed; that would be one example.  What do you suppose the chances are that he didn't already have a record?  Pretty slim, I'd guess.

Quote from: antoinebugleboy on August 31, 2011, 09:06:44 AM

Quote

Honolulu Police Department (Official Site)
This morning at 2:45 am HPD officers observed a group of males hanging out near a closed retail business in the Kapahuluu area, some of them appeared to go towards the rear of the business. Officers went to investigate and during the contact one of the males a 20 yr. old was found to be in possession of a handgun. He was subsequently arrested for the place to keep offense

Seems pretty obvious to me that the perps were up to no good, but could the officers have charged them with anything else? (I posted a reply on FB asking if the gun was legally registered to the suspect.)

And the response was? 

No reply from HPD, but there was a followup reply from someone else:

Not if he was 20. You have to be 21 to own a handgun and since you are not legally allowed to loan your handguns he was in violation of the law.

If I were king, here's how I'd handle it.  Purchasing a gun would be Arizona-style simple. No requirement for training.

However, there would be at 25% tax charged for people who had not recently passed a safety certification.  So no one is required to take any classes, or wait for paperwork.  However, there would be a strong financial motivation for people to get, and maintain, a safety status.

If anyone finds out his case number and stuff let me know.

Still no reply from HPD.

Quote from: vooduchikn on August 31, 2011, 10:58:07 AM

Quote from: antoinebugleboy on August 31, 2011, 09:06:44 AM

Quote

Honolulu Police Department (Official Site)
This morning at 2:45 am HPD officers observed a group of males hanging out near a closed retail business in the Kapahuluu area, some of them appeared to go towards the rear of the business. Officers went to investigate and during the contact one of the males a 20 yr. old was found to be in possession of a handgun. He was subsequently arrested for the place to keep offense

Seems pretty obvious to me that the perps were up to no good, but could the officers have charged them with anything else? (I posted a reply on FB asking if the gun was legally registered to the suspect.)

And the response was? 

No reply from HPD, but there was a followup reply from someone else:

Quote

Not if he was 20. You have to be 21 to own a handgun and since you are not legally allowed to loan your handguns he was in violation of the law.

That was me

Let me say I think it's a stupid law. As was said earlier there probably could have been something else to run them up on after all nothing good happens after midnight.

Quote from: antoinebugleboy on August 31, 2011, 11:58:56 AM

Quote from: vooduchikn on August 31, 2011, 10:58:07 AM

Quote from: antoinebugleboy on August 31, 2011, 09:06:44 AM

Quote

Honolulu Police Department (Official Site)
This morning at 2:45 am HPD officers observed a group of males hanging out near a closed retail business in the Kapahuluu area, some of them appeared to go towards the rear of the business. Officers went to investigate and during the contact one of the males a 20 yr. old was found to be in possession of a handgun. He was subsequently arrested for the place to keep offense

Seems pretty obvious to me that the perps were up to no good, but could the officers have charged them with anything else? (I posted a reply on FB asking if the gun was legally registered to the suspect.)

And the response was? 

No reply from HPD, but there was a followup reply from someone else:

Quote

Not if he was 20. You have to be 21 to own a handgun and since you are not legally allowed to loan your handguns he was in violation of the law.

That was me

Let me say I think it's a stupid law. As was said earlier there probably could have been something else to run them up on after all nothing good happens after midnight.

Cheers!

However, there would be at 25% tax charged for people who had not recently passed a safety certification.  So no one is required to take any classes, or wait for paperwork.  However, there would be a strong financial motivation for people to get, and maintain, a safety status.

No offense, Tom_G, but that one smells of (A) infringement and (B) discrimination.

However, there would be at $25.00 tax charged for voters at the polls who had not recently passed a literacy certification.

Does that sound familiar?

Terry, 230RN

Quote

However, there would be at 25% tax charged for people who had not recently passed a safety certification.  So no one is required to take any classes, or wait for paperwork.  However, there would be a strong financial motivation for people to get, and maintain, a safety status.

No offense, Tom_G, but that one smells of (A) infringement and (B) discrimination.

Quote

However, there would be at $25.00 tax charged for voters at the polls who had not recently passed a literacy certification.

Does that sound familiar?

Terry, 230RN

Of course it smells of infringement and discrimination!  I fully believe that anyone stupid enough not to take safety training seriously deserves to be infringed upon and discriminated against.  When they show up next to me at the range, it takes a lot of self control not to get all infringy and discriminatory on their asses!

Well, no offense meant.  Sorry to get your dander up. Hang loose:   

Meh.  Lots of states allow you to purchase firearms without a training requirement; I don't think it's really necessary.  The firearms community is one of the most (if not the most responsible, self-regulating, groups of citizens you'll find.  For exactly the reason Tom_G stated about how it takes a lot of self-control to not cuss out idiots at the range, people generally learn pretty quickly upon taking up the hobby.  I'd be ok with requiring the buyer to recite the four rules or something like that, as long as it could be completed in the store without imposing too much of a burden time-wise.  Although I should stress that I'd just be ok with it; I really don't agree with government-mandated training requirements.  (After all, look at the level of knowledge our kids are graduating with these days, and that's with 12 years of government-mandated training!)

Well, I've always been of the opinion that with all the millions (billions?) of rounds fired in the US every year, we've established a pretty good safety record in terms of accidents.

I say this without diminishing or minimizing how dangerous an unintended bullet can be, but one thing that impressed the heck out of a group of young shooters was to shoot a gallon jug of water at about 30 paces with a .30-06.  Impressed the heck out of them (they were well back of me), especially since the shot busted up the rock behind the jug pretty bad.

All they needed then was a review of the safety specifics of handling (this was before COoper's "4 rules"  were common knowledge.)

Danged fool me, I had to wipe the water drops off the gun from that one.

Terry, 230RN

Well, I've always been of the opinion that with all the millions (billions?) of rounds fired in the US every year, we've established a pretty good safety record in terms of accidents.

Terry, 230RN

Exactly.  The only firearms safety course I've ever taken, not counting military, was hunter's safety when I was 12, and the safety portion was pretty much limited to memorizing ten rules of gun safety, and how much orange you need.