SB2954 was heard in committee today and was scheduled for a vote. One of our friendly legislators thought there was a problem because there was absolutely no testimony in opposition so he was able to defer it until tomorrow. He called and asked why there was no testimony. It originally appeared that the committee wouldn't take testimony but then changed their mind and opened it up late yesterday sometime.

Bottom line: We need to bury the Reps. with testimony. Even if you have sent it in before, send it in again, soon! Contact your reps and send it to them. I was looking over the number of testimonies sent in and considering the number of firearms owners, the numbers were pretty slim. Especially for the latter hearings. We really need to flood them with testimony.

Here is the message that HRA just sent out:

We just received word from our supportive Representatives that SB2954, the Senate version of HB 2692 (Rapback), is up for floor vote in the House on Thursday, 4/7, at noon.  The vote was deferred until tomorrow to give the representatives the opportunity to see how their constituents feel about the bill.  You MUST contact your representative and let them know you are STRONGLY OPPOSED to this bill.  If you aren't sure who that is, go to: www.capitol.hawaii.gov and on the upper right of the page, enter your street name where it says "Find your legislator".
 
If your representative is on the list below, you don't need to contact them, these representatives are already supportive of your Second Amendment rights:
Representatives:
Henry Aquino
Isaac Choy
Ty Cullen
Lynn DeCoite
Sharon Har
Ken Ito
Derek Kawakami
Sam Kong
Bob McDermott
Marcus Oshiro
Calvin Say
James Tokioka
Andria Tupola
Ryan Yamane
 
Points of concern regarding the bill:
Strongly Oppose.  It's similar to HB 2692.
* It enrolls law abiding applicants for firearms permits into a Federal Database to track criminal activity.
*  It violates Federal law, which protects all legal firearms owners from being placed in a Federal firearm owners database.  The law is the "Firearms Owner's Protection Act of 1986".
* No other state in the United States is using this mechanism to track firearms, most likely because they have realized that doing so violates Federal Statutes.
* HPD Major Richard Robinson stated in Senator Nishihara's PSM hearing that the database will include the applicant's name,  identifying demographics, such as birth date and physical characteristics and the category listed will be firearms. This violates the Federal Statute above.
* If passed an additional fee will be charged to each applicant for a firearms permit. The fee indicated is around $50.00.
* If passed this becomes an unfunded mandate on HPD to assign HPD firearms staff to track all of the hits that come in from the Rap Back system and to track them through to dismissal or conviction, a  very time consuming  and unnecessary endeavor.
MAHALO
 
HARVEY GERWIG, LEGISLATIVE LIAISON and PRESIDENT, HRA
 
EMAIL:  HGHAWAII@GMAIL.COM,    PHONE:  (808) 306-7194

SB2954 was heard in committee today and was scheduled for a vote. One of our friendly legislators thought there was a problem because there was absolutely no testimony in opposition so he was able to defer it until tomorrow. He called and asked why there was no testimony. It originally appeared that the committee wouldn't take testimony but then changed their mind and opened it up late yesterday sometime.

Bottom line: We need to bury the Reps. with testimony. Even if you have sent it in before, send it in again, soon! Contact your reps and send it to them. I was looking over the number of testimonies sent in and considering the number of firearms owners, the numbers were pretty slim. Especially for the latter hearings. We really need to flood them with testimony.

Here is the message that HRA just sent out:

We just received word from our supportive Representatives that SB2954, the Senate version of HB 2692 (Rapback), is up for floor vote in the House on Thursday, 4/7, at noon.  The vote was deferred until tomorrow to give the representatives the opportunity to see how their constituents feel about the bill.  You MUST contact your representative and let them know you are STRONGLY OPPOSED to this bill.  If you aren't sure who that is, go to: www.capitol.hawaii.gov and on the upper right of the page, enter your street name where it says "Find your legislator".
 
If your representative is on the list below, you don't need to contact them, these representatives are already supportive of your Second Amendment rights:
Representatives:
Henry Aquino
Isaac Choy
Ty Cullen
Lynn DeCoite
Sharon Har
Ken Ito
Derek Kawakami
Sam Kong
Bob McDermott
Marcus Oshiro
Calvin Say
James Tokioka
Andria Tupola
Ryan Yamane
 
Points of concern regarding the bill:
Strongly Oppose.  It's similar to HB 2692.
* It enrolls law abiding applicants for firearms permits into a Federal Database to track criminal activity.
*  It violates Federal law, which protects all legal firearms owners from being placed in a Federal firearm owners database.  The law is the "Firearms Owner's Protection Act of 1986".
* No other state in the United States is using this mechanism to track firearms, most likely because they have realized that doing so violates Federal Statutes.
* HPD Major Richard Robinson stated in Senator Nishihara's PSM hearing that the database will include the applicant's name,  identifying demographics, such as birth date and physical characteristics and the category listed will be firearms. This violates the Federal Statute above.
* If passed an additional fee will be charged to each applicant for a firearms permit. The fee indicated is around $50.00.
* If passed this becomes an unfunded mandate on HPD to assign HPD firearms staff to track all of the hits that come in from the Rap Back system and to track them through to dismissal or conviction, a  very time consuming  and unnecessary endeavor.
MAHALO
 
HARVEY GERWIG, LEGISLATIVE LIAISON and PRESIDENT, HRA
 
EMAIL:  HGHAWAII@GMAIL.COM,    PHONE:  (808) 306-7194

sent

I just tried to submit testimony for SB2954 and got this error message, "No upcoming hearings for this measure. To see a list of hearing notices for a particular measure, you may use the Hearings by Measure searchbox under the Search section to the left."

This is not going to a committee, this is being voted on by the House so no testimonies will be heard.

Instead you have to email or call your House representative which you can find here: http://maps.hawaii.gov/HIStateHouse/#

This is not going to a committee, this is being voted on by the House so no testimonies will be heard.

Instead you have to email or call your House representative which you can find here: http://maps.hawaii.gov/HIStateHouse/#

Got it thanks, I emailed Andria P.L. Tupola she is my Representative.

Please email or call your representatives today!

The deferral of the bill for 24 hours is our only chance for our representatives to hear from us.  If they don't hear from enough of us, they will be voting on this tomorrow.

Points of concern regarding the bill, per HRA.

Strongly Oppose.  It's similar to HB 2692.
* It enrolls law abiding applicants for firearms permits into a Federal Database to track criminal activity.
*  It violates Federal law, which protects all legal firearms owners from being placed in a Federal firearm owners database.  The law is the "Firearms Owner's Protection Act of 1986".
* No other state in the United States is using this mechanism to track firearms, most likely because they have realized that doing so violates Federal Statutes.
* HPD Major Richard Robinson stated in Senator Nishihara's PSM hearing that the database will include the applicant's name,  identifying demographics, such as birth date and physical characteristics and the category listed will be firearms. This violates the Federal Statute above.
* If passed an additional fee will be charged to each applicant for a firearms permit. The fee indicated is around $50.00.
* If passed this becomes an unfunded mandate on HPD to assign HPD firearms staff to track all of the hits that come in from the Rap Back system and to track them through to dismissal or conviction, a  very time consuming  and unnecessary endeavor.

We need to hit this hard guys.

My bad. My post was mistaken. Thus attempted delete.

This is not going to a committee, this is being voted on by the House so no testimonies will be heard.

Instead you have to email or call your House representative which you can find here: http://maps.hawaii.gov/HIStateHouse/#

Correct. Contact your Representative directly. You cannot submit "testimony."

My bad. Sorry for any confusion.

Got it thanks, I emailed Andria P.L. Tupola she is my Representative.

I got this reply to my email from Rep. Tupola,

Aloha Edward!


I voted NO on second reading and will vote NO on third reading.  We were supposed to vote on it today but the Majority decided to defer it a day.  If it comes out tomorrow for a vote, I will be voting NO.


Thank you!

Representative

Andria Tupola

House of Representatives - District 43

Maili, Nanakuli, Ko Olina, Honokai Hale, Kalaeloa, Ewa

The bill passed the in the committee hearing after Karl Rhoads stood on the floor and basically pleaded for everyone to vote for the bill...and surprise, he apparently made many false claims about the bill.

Here is who voted no:
Aquino
Choy,
Cullen,
DeCoite,
Har,
Hashem,
Ito,
Jordan,
Kawakami,
Kong,
McKelvey,
Morikawa,
Say,
Tokioka,
Tsuji,
Yamane,
Yamashita,
Fukumoto,
Matsumoto,
Pouha,
Ward

Not Present:
Oshiro,
McDermott,
Thielen,
Tupola,
Harimoto

Had those listed as absent been present, we would have had enough votes to kill the bill....

Did you call your Representative? If your Representative is one that was absent, or that voted yes, I think you need to call them..... 

 

H 4/7/2016: Passed Third Reading with none voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) Aquino, Choy, Cullen, DeCoite, Fukumoto Chang, Har, Hashem, Ito, Jordan, Kawakami, Kong, Matsumoto, McKelvey, Morikawa, Pouha, Say, Tokioka, Tsuji, Ward, Yamane, Yamashita voting no (21) and Representative(s) McDermott, Oshiro, Thielen, Tupola excused (4). Transmitted to Senate.   
SB2954 SD2 HD1   Criminal History Record Checks; Police; Permits to Acquire Firearms; Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center; Database Management   
RELATING TO FIREARMS.   Authorizes county police departments to enroll firearms applicants and individuals who are registering their firearms into a criminal record monitoring service used to alert police when an owner of a firearm is arrested for a criminal offense anywhere in the country. Authorizes the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center to access firearm registration data. (SB2954 HD1)