STAR ADVERTISER / MARCH 19, 2023 A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday says Hawaii is the only state that bans 18- to 20-year-olds from owning guns and ammunition. Guns are shown here during the 2023 ‘Great Guns’ Gun Show at Blaisdell Center.
STAR ADVERTISER / MARCH 19, 2023 A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday says Hawaii is the only state that bans 18- to 20-year-olds from owning guns and ammunition. Guns are shown here during the 2023 ‘Great Guns’ Gun Show at Blaisdell Center.
A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday would allow the sale of firearms to 18- to 20-year-olds, claiming Hawaii is the only state that bans this age group from owning guns and ammunition.
According to the lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation, many of its Hawaiian members are between the ages of 18 and 20 — including Elijah Pinales, 19, and Judah Roache, who turns 18 on Dec. 15 — and are “in a negative and directly “harmed and injured” by enforcing the “legal prohibition on the legal sale of firearms and ammunition.”
The 47-page civil suit was also filed on behalf of Danger Close Tactical of Honolulu and JGB Arms LLC of Kauai, two firearms retailers that joined the federal lawsuit because they want to sell guns and ammunition to 18- to 20-year-old customers. .
The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Hawaii’s laws that prohibit the “acquisition, purchase, sale, ownership and possession of firearms and ammunition by adults under the age of 21.”
Hawaii’s current law makes it “impossible” for people between the ages of 18 and 20 to exercise their right to “keep arms,” as guaranteed by the text of the Second Amendment and as “recognized and reaffirmed” by the Supreme Court of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, according to the civil complaint.
Hawaii’s ban on gun ownership by young adults ages 18 to 20 began in 1994 and was expanded this year to prevent them from possessing ammunition, according to the federal civil complaint.
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“The Public Prosecution Service has not received the complaint. The department generally does not comment on pending litigation,” Toni Schwartz, public information officer for Attorney General Anne E. Lopez, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Bruen case, a permit to carry a gun was denied to law-abiding citizens who meet basic requirements set by each county.
According to the Honolulu City Council, it also invalidated a 170-year-old law that required applicants for a firearms permit to demonstrate they had a special need to carry a concealed weapon.
Without the Hawaii ban, Roache would “acquire, purchase, possess and possess a firearm and ammunition” and also “accept, acquire and possess a firearm and ammunition given to him by his mother.”
The Second Amendment Foundation, a nonprofit based in Bellevue, Washington, said it is challenging Hawaii’s “restrictive gun control laws,” which it said “discriminate against young adults and prohibit them from acquiring, purchasing and possessing firearms and ammunition, thereby violate their laws. Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights,” the statement said.
The organization, Pinales, Roache and the two companies are represented by attorneys Kevin G. O’Grady in Honolulu and Alan A. Beck of San Diego.
“Hawaii’s ban on the purchase and possession of firearms by adults 18 to 20 years of age makes it impossible for these citizens to exercise their constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” said Executive Adam Kraut director of the Second Amendment Foundation. a press release. “Their rights have been secured by recent Supreme Court decisions, not to mention the history and tradition of this country, and Hawaii’s statutes are clearly inconsistent with those decisions and the relevant history.”
The organization claims more than 720,000 members nationwide, including in Hawaii.
“Hawaii has essentially decided that the Second Amendment doesn’t apply in that state, and they can’t get away with it,” Second Amendment Foundation founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb added in a press release. “Under the Fourteenth Amendment, no state shall make or enforce any law that abridges the rights guaranteed to its citizens by the Constitution of the United States, including young adults. These bans simply cannot continue.”
