Among the many "problems" with SB898 (see thread in "Legal and Activism"
https://2ahawaii.com/index.php?topic=26639.0) is that once a person has been deemed "a danger to themsleves or others" the only action taken is to confiscate any firearms registered to that person, thus leaving them free to roam in public with access to any and all other tools that could be used as weapons to inflict injury or death upon other people. This includes, for examples, knives, hammers, machetes, cars, gasoline, poisons, screwdrivers, pieces of pipe, baseball bats, bricks, rocks, mattocks, shovels, axes, chain saws, rope, wire, etc., etc., etc., not to mention the most used "tools" to inflict injury and death in cases of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) or domestic violence: hands, feet and fists.
As I pointed out in my testimony to the committee (which then passed the bill unanimously), if a person is deemed (in an ex parte hearing in which the accused is neither present nor even informed of the hearing) "a danger to themselves or others" it is completely illogical to leave that person in free in public with every single tool available to harm others
except for firearms (which are present in less than 1% of IPV instances). But facts don't matter to legislators, especially when firearms are involved and they have an agenda.
For example, it's possible that this person, under the proposed Hawaii law, could have had his firearms confiscated and still been able to accomplish the following.
Suspect in deadly Times Square automobile mayhem charged with murderhttp://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/05/19/suspect-in-deadly-times-square-mayhem-charged-with-murder.htmlThe man accused of steering his car onto one of the busiest sidewalks in Times Square and mowing down pedestrians Thursday has been charged with murder and 20 counts of attempted murder.
Richard Rojas, of the Bronx, also was charged late Thursday with five counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, police said.
The 26-year-old Rojas was arrested Thursday afternoon after his car sped down three blocks in Times Square, hitting nearly two dozen people before steel security barriers finally stopped him.
An 18-year-old tourist from Michigan, Alyssa Elsman, was killed. Her 13-year-old sister was among the 22 injured, four of them critically.
The suspect had served in the U.S. Navy but was discharged after disciplinary problems, military officials said. After his arrest, he told police he was "hearing voices" and expected to die, two law enforcement officials said.
[Given his background of disciplinary problems in the Navy, it's possible that someone may have seen him as a "danger to himself or others" and had such a law been in effect, had his firearms confiscated... leaving him with only every other tool/weapon in existence to harm others.]