BAck in November i had to file a Lawsuit in Federal court in regards to HPD violating my rights and potentially the rights of others,
I First Acquired a Rifle permit and was issued it with no problem, I Then tried to get a pistol permit a couple of weeks latter and this is where i ran into a problem. HPD claimed to have a "policy"
They claimed that the policy stated that Non-Citizens were required to provide documentation (a letter or copy of their criminal history) from their country of origin or the embassy or consulate of that country. When asked for a copy of the policy they claimed it was a verbal policy issued from the cheifes/city lawyers.
They claimed the policy was because the NCIS check they are required to do does not show family crimes or misdemeanors that would prohibit owning a gun in Hawaii.
I explained to them they were wrong and that it does show this (i even checked with Homeland security) I explained that the law required that they do the background check, I also explained that if i went to get my citizenship (which i am in the process of doing) they wouldn't even ask about my history before hand (their is no history anyway).
This is where it gets really stupid, I had already been issued a valid rifle permit, So i went and bought a cheap shotgun. I then took this shotgun to HPD to register, They seized my shotgun and revoked my permit. They told me the permit was issued in error and as such i should of never been able to buy the shotgun. I explained that although they may believe that to be the case, The law does not allow them to seize my legally purchased/owned firearm and doing so was a violation of my rights, I asked them under what law they were seizing it and they could not answer, I asked them if i had broken a law they told me no.
I was left with little to no choice but to file suit. I called Richard L Holcomb (If you need a lawyer for this type of thing he is the guy) I expalined the situation to him and he was right on it, We filled the lawsuit in federal court on November 6th 2015 (a copy of which can be found here
http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/Portals/0/Article%20Attachments/Roberts%20v%20Honolulu%202nd%20Amendment.pdf)
It is a 2nd, 4th and 14th amendment case,
The city settled the case this past week, They accept no liability or wrong doing But gave me back my rifle and issued me both my permits, They also changed HPD policy to state that they can/will not require additional background checks of non-citizens other then allowed by law (via the NCIS database)
Now im not sure how many other people they may have done this too who were not aware of what their rights are, But even tho this dose not affect that many people here in Hawaii, it is still a 2A win for everyone.