Well I opened my storage to find two banned assault pistols I purchased in 1994. I went on deployment after and I never registered them. After reviewing the laws it seems I am basically screwed or am I? I have a mac-11 SWD 9MM with all the accessories and the intratech 22 scorpion. I want to sell them but the law is saying I cannot is there a way around this? Will I lose my investment? Do I give them up.

Hi mjnhawaii,
First of all welcome to the forums. I moved this topic because it is more of a legal issue than a for sale issue. I'll try and do some research on the subject and someone may be able to chime in before me.

This is from the Hawaii Revised Statutes:

(e)  After July 1, 1992, no person shall bring or cause to be brought into the State an assault pistol.  No assault pistol may be sold or transferred on or after July 1, 1992, to anyone within the State other than to a dealer licensed under section 134-32 or the chief of police of any county except that any person who obtains title by bequest or intestate succession to an assault pistol registered within the State shall, within ninety days, render the weapon permanently inoperable, sell or transfer the weapon to a licensed dealer or the chief of police of any county, or remove the weapon from the State. [L 1988, c 275, pt of §2; am L 1992, c 286, §2]

So it looks like if you bought the pistols in 1994, that was illegal and the statute gives the course of action you should take. There may be a little more to it than that, though, as I am not well versed in the history of the law.

i would take them apart and store it in seperate pieces and places for now.

As I read HRS 134-04, I see an important phrase recur:  "To a dealer"

I think that you could transfer ownership to a dealer, who could then sell it out-of-state.  Were you to inherit one today, that would be one of your 3 choices under state law (the other 2 being transfer it to HPD or render it permanently inoperable).  Contact a FFL holder and see if they will handle that.  I recommend Big Al at ready on the Right.

Why the F*%# would you even post this shit?.........did you think we would all jump up and say "OOh me , sell those to me me!!"  This guys sounds like a fucking fed. jackboot atf shitbag trying to entrap someone naive.... Get THE FUCK OFF THIS BOARD STORMTROOPER!!!!!

He might be, or he might be a guy who legitimately needs help.  Either way, I would think nobody on these forums would be silly enough to try to buy an illegal weapon over the internet from an unknown source. 

I'm with Rookie, you should take it apart until you can figure out what to do with it. 

I am not a lawyer, but I'd be willing to bet that taking it apart isn't "permanently inoperable" enough in the eyes of the law.

And I hope nobody would be foolish enough to try and buy this. I let this post go because I think it has a good legal question in it and that is also why it's in the Legal section.

Sell them cheap to me.  I am in Arizona.

Or do as we do in CA.  Configure them to not meet the definition of "assault pistol" and keep them.  Sure, they aren't as fun as the original configuration, but they would be LEGAL.

Or sell them to Yellowcarbon and be done with them.

Justin

Really??

Well I opened my storage to find two banned assault pistols I purchased in 1994. I went on deployment after and I never registered them. After reviewing the laws it seems I am basically screwed or am I? I have a mac-11 SWD 9MM with all the accessories and the intratech 22 scorpion. I want to sell them but the law is saying I cannot is there a way around this? Will I lose my investment? Do I give them up.

I call BS............

Sorry, you're in such a crappy position. You could have posted it as a hypothetical question but either way someone might have still gotten upset. 

The best suggestion I can come up with is to transfer it out of state.  Dunno if any dealer here would be willing to take it since there's a loss of continuity.  I believe that certain states such as new Hampshire don't require any registering of firearms.  I think they require the buyer and seller to "know" each other.  Not sure if it is limited to certain types of firearms.  You can't just buy a gun from a stranger answering an ad or a forum post.  Would you happen to have friends who are enthusiasts in some other more friendly state?  The NRA Ila website would be good place to start.  They may still have state by state gun laws somwhere on their site. 

My opinion on the other stuff.  Taking apart probably only makes it less recognizable as an assault pistol.  However if no one ever sees it, what as the point of taking it apart?  Does hpd randomly walk through homes?  I don't think you'd be legally in any better position by taking apart. 

Are those two capable of being converted to non-assault pistol pistols? Did dealers have to register all pistols they brought I to the state back then?  If they did, you wouldn't be able to convert them to rifles.  Frame and reciever aren't interchangeable.  I think.  I asked when I went to register my Uzi receiver.  I was told by one of the ladys from the back that I would have to make sure to build it as a rifle because all the previous owners had registered them as rifles. 

I'd run the I'm not a lawyer waier here but Im so far off from being a lawyer I don't even know what to write.  Bottom line, I ain't a someone with any legal cred.  I'm sure you already did the legally appropriate actions like I would have done....

If this a genuine post, sorry you're in such a shetty position.  Good luck.  I've heard there are people who never register any of their guns and never get in trouble.  I'm a sheep so I'm not one of them. 

I would transfer them to a local dealer so they could consign them to someone on the mainland.

Or... If you have family that lives in a state where they are legal, ship them to that family member to hold for you until you move out of Hawaii.

Just my 2 cents

Zombie thread alert...

My nephew in CA is in a similar position. He inherited a Ruger SP-101 (6 shot revolver) from his grandfather (my father). He kept it for a few years and now he wants to sell it to finance some mods to his Hi-Power which he also inherited from his grandfather. The problem is that CA now has a list of approved guns that can be bought and sold in CA. And while the SP-101 is no where near an assault weapon he cannot sell it because it is not on the list. The SP-101 in all calibers is on the list except one. Apparently, he has the SP-101 in 9mm which was only made for a year or two. So all other calibers of the SP-101 are on the list and can be bought and sold, his SP-101 cannot be. Dumb.

Super Necro on this thread lol. Don't want people wasting their time responding.