From NRA-ILA:

Hawaii: First Anti-Gun Bill Out of the 2012 Legislative Chute

  Senate Bill 2975 is slated to be heard in the Senate Public Safety, Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee (PGM) on Thursday, February 9th at 2:45 p.m. in conference room 224.  Introduced by state Senator Shan Tsutsui (D-4), this anti-gun legislation would mandate that all Hawaii gun owners report the theft of a stolen firearm within 72 hours of discovering that theft.
 
This legislation serves to penalize victims of crimes by making them criminals for failing to file a report.  Such legislation has no impact on real crime fighting, serves to slow down law enforcement and holds gun owners responsible for the actions of criminals. 
 
Please contact members of the PGM committee and respectfully urge them to oppose this ill-conceived attempt at crime control. The committee’s contact information can be found below:
 
Senator Will Espero, Chairman (D-20)
 (808) 586-6360
 senespero@Capitol.hawaii.gov
Senator Michelle N. Kidani, Vice Chairman (D-17)
 (808) 586-7100
 senkidani@capitol.hawaii.gov
Senator Rosalyn H. Baker (D-5)
 (808) 586-6070
 senbaker@Capitol.hawaii.gov
Senator Pohai Ryan (D-25)
 (808) 587-8388
 senryan@capitol.hawaii.gov
Senator Sam Slom (R-8)
 (808) 586-8420
 senslom@Capitol.hawaii.gov
 

Warm up those emailing fingers and cell phones!  Give them opposition to ANY and ALL anti gun legislation!

I am opposed to this bill that requires persons to report stolen firearms within 72 hours under penalty of law.
 
 It make no sense to criminalize a person that has already been a victim of a crime.
 
 Instead the legislature should concentrate on putting the real criminals in jail, and stop the criminalization of law abiding, responsible citizens, who seek to protect themselves and their families.

There could be many reason one might not be able to report a stolen firearm.
Just a few examples.
Suppose a person is on a vacation or the person is deployed military; how then would they be able to know if their firearm is stolen and report it within 72 hours?
 What if a person has a sizable collection of firearms and one or two of them is stolen.  It may not be noticed within 72 hours. 

Now if the criminal is caught with the firearm, the person who owned it will be penalized, because it was stolen?
 This just does not make any sense to me.

Any responsible person will report a firearm stolen as soon as it is possible.

We do not need a law that states a person WILL report the firearm stolen within 72 hours.
 

Or, let's say you take a bunch of guns to the BI for a hunting/shooting trip.  You get back, and one's missing.  SHIT!  Did I misplace it, or did it get stolen?  What if you decide that you're pretty sure you left it in the brush when you unholstered it to use the latrine, but it's not there when you get back three days later?  At what point did you realize it was stolen?  When it came up missing, or when it couldn't be found?  Am I a criminal if I report it now, with the full, truthful tale about how long it took, or should I fib and say I just noticed it was missing?  DAMN! Is the Hawaii legislature really going to consider a law that could very conceivably end up with a law abiding citizen who has done nothing wrong trying to decide if he/she should lie to the police?

All excellent points which should be brought to your respective legislator's attention.....ready the pens (or keyboards...) and let the letters (and e-mails) fly.

All excellent points which should be brought to your respective legislator's attention.....ready the pens (or keyboards...) and let the letters (and e-mails) fly.

(In my best WASP accent) Mmmm, yes, quite right.

I dumped emails on all of them.
I got a response for my Senator nearly right away. He rebutted, "When should a report be filed if a gun is missing or stolen?"

Of course any normal, law abiding, person would report it as soon as possible. If they are not reporting it, perhaps they may be an accessory somehow.  But that should be considered on a case by case basis. I don't see how a law like this would be beneficial at all, unless it is to discourage gun ownership. Which is probably why it was introduced in the first place.

Makes me wonder if these politician are really smart, or is it that they have absolutely no common sense whatsoever?

Wow what a response Heavies. I'm gonna write to mines and see if they respond. All of them actually. Who's the rep for the Ewa beach area?

Wow what a response Heavies. I'm gonna write to mines and see if they respond. All of them actually. Who's the rep for the Ewa beach area?

Sen. Will Espiro

Actually that was his response. I'm in EB too.

Emails sent. 

Senate Bill 2975 is slated to be heard in the Senate Public Safety, Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee (PGM) on Thursday, February 9th at 2:45 p.m. in conference room 224.  Introduced by state Senator Shan Tsutsui (D-4), this anti-gun legislation would mandate that all Hawaii gun owners report the theft of a stolen firearm within 72 hours of discovering that theft.

It says upon discovering it was stolen so that negates those scenarios as you may have no idea when it was stolen. But I agree that any of us would report it as soon as we realized it and this law is completely unnecessary.

It says upon discovering it was stolen so that negates those scenarios as you may have no idea when it was stolen. But I agree that any of us would report it as soon as we realized it and this law is completely unnecessary.

There is a difference in what the law says, and what Johnny Law will expect.  You're technically correct, but I don't want to hang my hat on having the fuzz interpret that the way they should.  Also, it opens you up to to claims that you should have noticed it missing sooner than you did, and if the cops can get the jury to think a reasonable gun owner would go through his collection with a clipboard checklist daily, you're screwed.

There is a difference in what the law says, and what Johnny Law will expect.  You're technically correct, but I don't want to hang my hat on having the fuzz interpret that the way they should.  Also, it opens you up to to claims that you should have noticed it missing sooner than you did, and if the cops can get the jury to think a reasonable gun owner would go through his collection with a clipboard checklist daily, you're screwed.

 

I know guys with tons of guns in their collection. I garentee that some of these firearms have been stored for years.
Is there to be a mandatory firearm inventory report to be submitted to the authorities every 72 hours?
Bah, No way.

This is one of the next steps to taking your guns. They will turn this state and country in an England model, or worse.

Why make a law you can't enforce?

"Sorry, I didn't know it was stolen."

In addition to emailing the senators on the committee, submit testimony in opposition to the bill.

Punch in SB2975 in the search field to pull up the bill.

 

It says upon discovering it was stolen so that negates those scenarios as you may have no idea when it was stolen. But I agree that any of us would report it as soon as we realized it and this law is completely unnecessary.

What about 3 day weekends? I think we have about 10 or so this year alone. So, if you "discover" your firearm missing on Friday and you cannot report it until Tuesday, are you still in violation of the law? Or, should we use the 911 system (remember, they already claim to be overloaded...) to report the theft/loss?

And, while we're at it, let's require folks report a stolen car within 72 hours, after all, stolen cars are at least as dangerous as stolen firearms. After that, who knows, maybe we can start requiring the mandatory reporting of all sorts of thefts and criminalizing those otherwise law-abiding citizens.......remember, if they can get this passed, they may change it next year and modify the language to "knew or should have known" which is open to a lot more interpretation by our liberal courts.....

And, while we're at it, let's require folks report a stolen car within 72 hours, after all, stolen cars are at least as dangerous as stolen firearms. After that, who knows, maybe we can start requiring the mandatory reporting of all sorts of thefts and criminalizing those otherwise law-abiding citizens.......remember, if they can get this passed, they may change it next year and modify the language to "knew or should have known" which is open to a lot more interpretation by our liberal courts.....

I was going to state exactly this HiCarry. So what if you fail to report a car stolen while you're away on vacation? Say that car is used in a robbery, or a hit an run, etc. Are you going to criminalize the owner of that vehicle for failing to report it stolen?

In fact stolen cars are used by criminals to run down other people and cause property damage all the time.
more than stolen guns I would guess.

What about 3 day weekends? I think we have about 10 or so this year alone. So, if you "discover" your firearm missing on Friday and you cannot report it until Tuesday, are you still in violation of the law? Or, should we use the 911 system (remember, they already claim to be overloaded...) to report the theft/loss?

And, while we're at it, let's require folks report a stolen car within 72 hours, after all, stolen cars are at least as dangerous as stolen firearms. After that, who knows, maybe we can start requiring the mandatory reporting of all sorts of thefts and criminalizing those otherwise law-abiding citizens.......remember, if they can get this passed, they may change it next year and modify the language to "knew or should have known" which is open to a lot more interpretation by our liberal courts.....

Thefts are reported to the police, and they never close. I've called 911 to report a theft, they just transfer your call to whatever department you need to talk to.

Thefts are reported to the police, and they never close. I've called 911 to report a theft, they just transfer your call to whatever department you need to talk to.

So is this a plug supporting this semi-facist bill?

So is this a plug supporting this semi-facist bill?

Vood, what's up with the hostility lately?   

Could it be that someone is pointing out a flaw in an argument that shouldn't be used?  I mean, really, if you write to your representative or the committee, and one of your basic premises is so obviously flawed, what makes you think they'll overlook that and actually consider anything else you have to say?  Isn't it more likely they'll think "Well, this idiot obviously has no clue what he's talking about" and discount your entire testimony? 

So, those of you who haven't already written in, might I suggest skipping any point about 3-day weekends?

So is this a plug supporting this semi-facist bill?

I already said this law is unnecessary. I was pointing out a flaw in the example.