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Lawmakers are working to tighten Hawaii’s existing assault weapons ban by passing a bill that would expand the types of weapons it covers, even as the state fends off legal challenges to some of its current gun regulations.

Hawaii is the only state with an assault weapons ban that doesn’t cover assault rifles and assault shotguns, according to the bill. The current law only covers assault pistols. 

But opponents say if lawmakers pass the assault weapons measure, , which would add assault rifles, assault shotguns and detachable magazines with over 10-round capacities to the list of banned weapons, they will challenge it in court on the grounds that it infringes on their constitutional rights.

Other Hawaii gun laws have faced legal challenges, including the state’s “sensitive places” law that was enacted last year in response to the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, which expanded the rights of gun owners to carry their weapons in public.

Gun control advocates say a possible legal challenge shouldn’t stop lawmakers from passing SB 3196, which Sen. Karl Rhoads, chair of the Judiciary Committee, said will help ensure Hawaii’s gun laws remain some of the strictest in the nation.

“I think that that bill fills most of the really glaring problems we have in my opinion,” he said. “There’s things like requiring insurance for negligent damage done by weaponry that would be useful, there’s more violence prevention programs that would work, but I think that bill will take us pretty close to as far as we’re allowed to go under the federal interpretation of the constitution.”

Assault Weapons

Assault weapons are automatic or semiautomatic firearms that can shoot quickly and with more accuracy than other guns. Hawaii the possession or sale of automatic firearms, such as machine guns.

According to the most recent statistics available from the Attorney General’s Office, were recovered in 2022, including three assault pistols, two short-barrel shotguns and one short-barrel rifle.

That year, 21,047 permits were issued for 51,883 firearms. Longarms, mainly rifles and shotguns accounted for more than half of the firearms registered, though the report does not specify if any of those were semiautomatic.

Semiautomatic rifles, such as the AR-15, have been of mass shootings in the country over the last three years, according to The Trace, a news website that focuses on gun and violence issues. Gun control groups, such as Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, call them the “weapon of choice” for mass shooters because of the increased lethality they can cause.

A 2018 study published by the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery found that there were deaths between 1994 and 2004 when a federal assault weapons ban was in place. The ban expired in 2004.

State-level data doesn’t point to a rising trend in assault weapons being used in the commission of crimes.

In 2022, the most recent year for which FBI crime data was available, knives or cutting instruments were used in the commission of 567 violent crimes statewide while . Rifles were used in 13 violent crimes, shotguns were used in 11. The data does not specify if any of the firearms were semiautomatic but does say automatic handguns were used in four violent crimes and an automatic rifle was used in one.

But gun control advocates say they want Hawaii to ban weapons like the AR-15 before they become a problem. Some testifiers cited a New Year’s Day incident in Honolulu during which a man with an shot a woman and two police officers before he was killed by police.

“This is a line-drawing bill,” Rhoads said during a recent Senate committee hearing on the bill. “At what point on the spectrum of a kitchen knife and nuclear weapons, where on that range do we as private citizens get to keep weaponry? I think this bill draws it in a perfectly rational place.”

But opponents say the bill goes too far in banning styles of rifles that are commonly used for hunting, target shooting and self defense.

“It goes further than any other state’s. They’re going to ban virtually all semiautomatic firearms with this bill,” said Alan Beck, an attorney representing gun rights groups in lawsuits against the state. “The issue is being heavily litigated. I think the state is opening itself up to a whole lot of unnecessary litigation.”

Other gun control measures being heard in the Legislature this year include , which would set the purchase age for ammunition at 21, and , which would establish a longterm, statewide gun buyback program.

Legal Challenges

Other states have faced legal challenges to their assault weapons bans, including California. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering whether it will uphold the state’s ban, which was by a federal judge. A federal appeals court upheld Illinois’ assault weapons ban last year, but a has asked the Supreme Court to review the decision.

In Hawaii, the state the Bruen decision by ruling that a man could be charged for carrying a handgun in public without a permit.

Christopher Wilson brought the case in 2017 after he was charged for carrying a firearm that he’d legally purchased in Florida but failed to register in Hawaii. Wilson filed a motion to dismiss the charges, which a Circuit Court denied in 2021.

After the Bruen decision, he filed a second motion to dismiss. A judge granted the motion in August 2022, saying charging him infringed on his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for self defense. The state appealed the decision, and Hawaii’s high court sided with the state in a Feb. 7 opinion.

“The spirit of Aloha clashes with a federally-mandated lifestyle that lets citizens walk around with deadly weapons during day-to-day activities,” the decision says.

The federal court temporarily barred the state from enforcing parts of its sensitive places law last year after three Maui gun owners and the Hawaii Firearms Coalition filed suit, saying that the restrictions in the law infringe on people’s constitutional rights by prohibiting them from carrying firearms in many public places. The case is now being heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with arguments scheduled for April 11.

Chris Marvin, a Honolulu resident and advisory council member of Everytown for Gun Safety, said legislators shouldn’t worry about whether laws they pass could survive future legal challenges.

“There’s never been an assault weapons ban that has been found unconstitutional,” he said. “It’s just a typical gun lobby tactic to stand up and scare legislators by saying, ‘You better not do this because the Supreme Court might overturn it.'”