Has anyone recently (in the last year or so) gone through the process of inheriting a firearm?  If so, I am interested in feedback of your experience of the process. 

I did some searching on this forum, and couldn't find anything direct. 

§134-2  Permits to acquire.  (a)  No person shall acquire the ownership of a firearm, whether usable or unusable, serviceable or unserviceable, modern or antique, registered under prior law or by a prior owner or unregistered, either by purchase, gift, inheritance, bequest, or in any other manner, whether procured in the State or imported by mail, express, freight, or otherwise, until the person has first procured from the chief of police of the county of the person's place of business or, if there is no place of business, the person's residence or, if there is neither place of business nor residence, the person's place of sojourn, a permit to acquire the ownership of a firearm as prescribed in this section.  When title to any firearm is acquired by inheritance or bequest, the foregoing permit shall be obtained before taking possession of a firearm; provided that upon presentation of a copy of the death certificate of the owner making the bequest, any heir or legatee may transfer the inherited or bequested firearm directly to a dealer licensed under section 134-31 or licensed by the United States Department of Justice without complying with the requirements of this section.

From reading the HRS, I would need to get the permit to acquire prior to taking possession of the handguns.  To get the permit to acquire, I assume I would need to get the firearm information and death certificate and go through the normal permit to acquire process.  ("When title to any firearm is acquired by inheritance or bequest, the foregoing permit shall be obtained before taking possession of a firearm")

My first read of the HRS was that I HAD to transfer to an FFL, but it seems like that part of the HRS was intended for family who no longer wanted the firearm and would then have the dealer sell the firearm. 

The reason why I ask is that I had a couple of friends who acquired firearms in an estate sale, where the owner passed away.  They didn't complete the transaction until after the person passed away, so there was some added steps in inheriting and then then sale.  It turned out that one of the firearms that the guy who passed away possessed, was his deceased brother's handgun and they never did the transfer and didn't have the death certificate for the brother.  In any case, from what I was told there was some conflicting information on what was the proper process, particularly for the handguns.  That was also when I had a buddy that was assigned to the firearms division, but he's since moved on. 

Sounds very complicated.  Unless it's a Luger, I wouldn't go through the trouble.

Had a friend at the DMV get her license renewed.
1) Show birth cert
2) Show marriage cert
3) Show divorce decree
4) Show marriage cert (2nd husband)

All to get her current last name (2nd husband).  She couldn't just show #1 & 4

Sounds very complicated.  Unless it's a Luger, I wouldn't go through the trouble.

Had a friend at the DMV get her license renewed.
1) Show birth cert
2) Show marriage cert
3) Show divorce decree
4) Show marriage cert (2nd husband)

All to get her current last name (2nd husband).  She couldn't just show #1 & 4

Think you have to loosen the tinfoil hat.  Cutting off circulation. . . Or maybe give you heatstroke. . .

I haven't done this, but from reading other threads here on the subject, the general consensus was an FFL is the easiest route.

No, FFLs are not just for heirs who don't want the firearms.  When an FFL takes the firearm to do the transfer to you, it simplifies the HPD process.  All weapons are considered property of the FFL, and the transfer goes from the FFL to you -- just like when an out-of-state weapon ships to an FFL.  HPD doesn't care who you bought it from as long as the transferor is a local FFL.

Had a friend inquire with the firearms division and here's what I was told.

Simplest way is to have the executor of the estate write a letter stating transfer of ownership to individual (in this case me), and that with the DC, could then complete the transfer at HPD.  In this case, we don't have an executor designated.  We'll have to go through probate for the house anyways, but that would take time.  We recently went through the probate process for my grandmother's estate and it was easy.  One of my best friends is an attorney that does estate planning and admin law, so with his help, it went smoothly.  Just takes time.  My follow up question that my friend will try to track down is that is does the "complete transfer at HPD" mean just need to register, or have to go through the permit to acquire process. 

Without executor for the estate, have to transfer the firearms to FFL.  It was explained (I suspect some speculation or perhaps message not conveyed fully) that that FFL process includes verifying both a background check for me (same with any purchase), as well as a check on previous ownership of the firearm.  The latter part, I am not so sure of, but that's what I was told.  Then once that process is complete, then can complete transfer at HPD.  Again, question for clarification was does that mean transfer or have to go through the permit to acquire process.

From my reading of the HRS, I THINK that in both cases, I would need to go through the permit to acquire process, particularly for the handguns.  However, if one route does allow for simply registering the firearm, I would like to explore that.  At this point, I THINK I'll have to go through the whole permit to acquire process, which includes Rapback.  But will see. . .

My buddy is supposed to try to follow up with the firearms division today.  He and his brother are the ones that had some experience with this process as part of purchase of an estate sale of firearms.  Full disclosure, my buddy is a cop.  I do NOT want this thread turning into a cop bashing one as from what I have seen, he has gotten NO preferential treatment, and that was even when his former partner (who remains a good friend of us both) was assigned to the firearms division.

§134-2  Permits to acquire.  (a)  No person shall acquire the ownership of a firearm, whether usable or unusable, serviceable or serviceable, modern or antique, registered under prior law or by a prior owner or unregistered, either by purchase, gift, inheritance, bequest, or in any other manner, whether procured in the State or imported by mail, express, freight, or otherwise, until the person has first procured from the chief of police of the county of the person's place of business or, if there is no place of business, the person's residence or, if there is neither place of business nor residence, the person's place of sojourn, a permit to acquire the ownership of a firearm as prescribed in this section.  When title to any firearm is acquired by inheritance or bequest, the foregoing permit shall be obtained before taking possession of a firearm; provided that upon presentation of a copy of the death certificate of the owner making the bequest, any heir or legatee may transfer the inherited or bequested firearm directly to a dealer licensed under section 134-31 or licensed by the United States Department of Justice without complying with the requirements of this section.

So heard back from a friend who was helping tracking this down.  Response from firearms division contact was no matter if the estate executor designates me as transfer of ownership to me or if I go through the FFL, I would still need to go through RapBack either way.  So looks like I'll be going into the system.  That might open the flood gates to other guns.  I have spoken to a couple of FFL who are willing to help me with this, so hope to get through this in the next few weeks.

One interesting note from the contact at the firearms division, he mentioned that the RapBack fee will be going up in Jan 2019.  That's just word of mouth, but I have no reason to doubt this guy. 

Give Harvey a call.  He does it all the time.

Give Harvey a call.  He does it all the time.

I don't have his number.  I used to have his number in a text chain, but looks like I didn't save it.   

So heard back from a friend who was helping tracking this down.  Response from firearms division contact was no matter if the estate executor designates me as transfer of ownership to me or if I go through the FFL, I would still need to go through RapBack either way.  So looks like I'll be going into the system.  That might open the flood gates to other guns.  I have spoken to a couple of FFL who are willing to help me with this, so hope to get through this in the next few weeks.

One interesting note from the contact at the firearms division, he mentioned that the RapBack fee will be going up in Jan 2019.  That's just word of mouth, but I have no reason to doubt this guy.

Once you're in the system, if you have 2 guns, might as well have 20.

If the price goes up and we already paid, I wonder if we pay the difference or the new fee again?

One interesting note from the contact at the firearms division, he mentioned that the RapBack fee will be going up in Jan 2019.  That's just word of mouth, but I have no reason to doubt this guy.

No, no, no... we won't ever take your rights away. But we will make it so cost prohibitive, that you just cant buy guns or ammunition.

Hoping the Mance v Whitaker (Holder) case makes it to SCOTUS and is a positive outcome for our rights. Then we will be able to buy whenever we want to when we travel.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.aspx?FileName=/docket/docketfiles/html/public%5C18-663.html

SNIP

Please keep your memes out of a topic intended for useful information.

First round of registering inherited firearms done. I did it by my getting named as executor of the estate. We had to go through escrow anyways because my dad didn’t have a notarized will. At least that we could find. My buddy is an estate attorney, so it was easy. HPD also stated they needed a notarized letter from my sister saying that she was ok with the firearms going to me. All of that and death certificate and apply for permits.

Had a bit of a snag where one of my dad’s handguns didn’t come up as under his name. It turned out that it was registered to him, but the previous owner was showing up in the system. Something about the registration was so old it didn’t show up or show up properly in the system. A female officer helped and did some “other” research and was able to find the registration in my dad’s name. Apparently it was a paper copy, so I assume it didn’t get input into the computer system properly. So going to permit to acquire process for that last handgun now. Good thing as it was one of his more prized guns. Still have the long guns to transfer/register, but those are easier.

I have to give HPD firearms folks props. They were really helpful with my experience and they seem to have streamlined some things since my last experience with them in 2015 or so. Yeah, sill not happy about RapBack, but they did go out of their way to help me when I heard from others that there are those that aren’t as helpful. I also noticed they helping a few others going through similar “issues” with transfers.

the actual people doing the permitting are actually pretty understanding if you're trying to do aboveboard transactions, and issues come up all the time due to the registration system being in place only since the 90s and the obvious bureaucracy of city government losing/misfiling paperwork.  And add the fact that many of these firearms are older and from a time where the receipts proving ownership werent really necessary.

Probably like 1/3 of the firearms existing in hawaii was purchased or obtained legally, but not registered (technically making them illegal)

the actual people doing the permitting are actually pretty understanding if you're trying to do aboveboard transactions, and issues come up all the time due to the registration system being in place only since the 90s and the obvious bureaucracy of city government losing/misfiling paperwork.  And add the fact that many of these firearms are older and from a time where the receipts proving ownership werent really necessary.

Probably like 1/3 of the firearms existing in hawaii was purchased or obtained legally, but not registered (technically making them illegal)

Yeah. That seemed to be the case today. Had a couple of other “interesting” cases where the person helping essentially “walked us through” from the registration side and to the paperwork side. Mine was paperwork and computer system disconnect. Another was precious disqualification rescinding, and another that the person told the guy on the other side basically, “I got this. You don’t want this one”.

My uncle wanted to give me a few handguns, one that he brought back from Vietnam. Ended up getting rid of it. I bet there are plenty of cases like that.

Got the rest of my dad's firearms transferred over the weekend.  Last were the long guns.  Only one was registered to him since I believe that was the only one he bought after 1994 (or whatever the cut off date is).  Thought the long guns would be easiest, but still had some hiccups and lessons to be learned.

Verify the serial number when you register.  Apparently, the serial number on the one long gun was not recorded correctly when my dad registered it.  The serial number had a Z and the record had it as a 2.  So that was cause for some confusion. 

Two of the long guns were CMP purchases.  So ownership ended up being documented via records by CMP.  Ownership documentation is critical for handguns, but I didn't expect things to be as rigorous with long guns. 

After it all, I was able to transfer ownership of all my dad's firearms successfully.  There was one handgun in particular that was in jeopardy of being taken away due to no registration (turned out to be error in system), but was able to work with the firearms folks to iron it out.  Two of them were super helpful. 

Hopefully none of you have to go through this process any time soon.  However, if you do and have questions, please feel free to reach out and ask. 
 

Hopefully this info still applies, my buddies father just passed and he's getting the Firearms. 

Hopefully this info still applies, my buddies father just passed and he's getting the Firearms.

Sorry to hear about your buddy's father.    Good that the firearms are being passed on in the family though.   

Other than the appointment process, I don't see why it would have changed.  While maybe not official or documented in the rules, seems like the main issue is documenting transfer of ownership from deceased.  Will stating guns go to your buddy is best, but like in my case, there are other ways to document.  All pretty easy, but some may take time.

One thing you might have your friend verify is if the guns were registered to his dad.  If yes, then easy peasy.  If not, then there are other ways to document ownership by the deceased.  DM me if the latter is the case.  I almost had to go down that path when they couldn't come up with the registration for one of my dad's guns. 

Sorry to hear about your buddy's father.    Good that the firearms are being passed on in the family though.   

Other than the appointment process, I don't see why it would have changed.  While maybe not official or documented in the rules, seems like the main issue is documenting transfer of ownership from deceased.  Will stating guns go to your buddy is best, but like in my case, there are other ways to document.  All pretty easy, but some may take time.

One thing you might have your friend verify is if the guns were registered to his dad.  If yes, then easy peasy.  If not, then there are other ways to document ownership by the deceased.  DM me if the latter is the case.  I almost had to go down that path when they couldn't come up with the registration for one of my dad's guns.

I told him he might want to go get his Pistol Permit for starters, he said he has a Hunter Education Program permit but I wasn't sure if that qualifies.  I ended up telling him to first find out how the Will is written then to call HPD, hopefully that's good advice:-)

I told him he might want to go get his Pistol Permit for starters, he said he has a Hunter Education Program permit but I wasn't sure if that qualifies.  I ended up telling him to first find out how the Will is written then to call HPD, hopefully that's good advice:-)

A Hunter's Education Course Certificate works in place of the Handgun Safety Training Affidavit.  He still needs to apply for a handgun permit to acquire using the training certificate.

Is he the Executor of the estate, or just an heir?  If an heir, then he probably needs a certified copy of the Will and Death Certificate.  Also, the Executor may need to maintain possession until the transfer to the heir is final.  If they are in a safe, that's probably best anyway.