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In an island state covered in dense jungle and agricultural land, machetes are common tools used for clearing thick vegetation and splitting coconuts. 

And on occasion, they are tools in dangerous crimes.

An 18-year-old man had been slashing at a family member with a machete in Waipahu last month when he was shot by Honolulu police, according to the department. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and has not been charged. 

Gun violence in West Oahu has recently focused attention on firearms, but knives and other sharp instruments like machetes are more commonly used to commit crimes in Hawaii, according to FBI Uniform Crime statistics. That contrasts with the U.S. as a whole, where guns are more commonly used in violent crime, statistics show. 

Machete attacks can be gruesome and attention-grabbing in a state where so many residents carry them in their cars or keep them in their garages. 

The prevalence of this type of violence over gun violence is due in part to the state’s strict gun laws, which could cause some to reach for a knife or cutting instrument as a more readily-accessible weapon, said Chris Marvin, with the national gun control advocacy organization Everytown for Gun Safety. 

But while attacks with knives or machetes are concerning, they usually aren’t as deadly as those committed guns, making gun control a higher priority for advocates of weapons regulation, he said. 

“Overall, our violent crime rates are also lower than most places on the mainland, so that speaks to how well our gun laws are working to prevent the most violent, lethal means from getting into the wrong hands for the wrong reasons,” he said. 

Legal To Own And Carry 

Police departments in Hawaii don’t track crimes specifically involving machetes, but they are legal to own and carry in Hawaii and are not considered weapons under the state’s deadly weapons statute. 

The crime for unauthorized people to conceal carrying other weapons, including dirks, daggers, metal knuckles and blackjacks, which are weighted batons.

The weapons were previously banned from being brought out in public at all, but a measure signed into law by Gov. Josh Green in May allows them to be carried as long as it’s done so openly. The measure also removed the state’s ban on butterfly knives, a type of folding knife often used in Filipino martial arts, and allows people to carry them openly. 

Hawaii’s weapons law was loosened in response to the 2022 Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, which expanded gun owner’s rights to carry their firearms in public. After the new law went into effect, a 2nd Amendment advocates strolled through Kapiolani Park carrying a battle axes. 

The weapons included under Hawaii’s deadly weapons statute are primarily used to defend oneself or attack another person, while machetes are designed as agricultural tools, said Alan Beck, a San Diego-based attorney who represents clients in many Hawaii weapons cases. 

In a statement, the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office said a machete “can be considered a dangerous instrument if it is used in a manner likely to cause death or serious bodily injury.”

Machetes may turn up in crimes because they’re commonly owned, easily accessible and, like kitchen knives and other legal yet potentially dangerous instruments, are difficult to regulate, said Sen. Karl Rhoads, a member of the Senate Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee. 

Although edged weapons may be more commonly used in violent crime, guns remain a priority for legislators because of their lethality, said Rhoads. 

“Guns are more deadly, so those are the ones we need to work harder to keep out of people’s hands who are going to use them in illegal ways,” he said. 

Knife Crimes 

Over the last five years in Hawaii, 17% of violent crimes were committed with knives or cutting instruments compared to 7% with a handgun, according to FBI Uniform Crime statistics. The human body – hands, fists or feet – is by far the most common weapon, used in 38% of crimes, according to the FBI. 

By comparison, in the U.S. as a whole, handguns were used in 18% of violent crimes and knives or cutting instruments in 12%. 

In Mississippi, which has some of the loosest gun laws in the country, according to the Giffords Law Center, handguns are used in 21% of violent crimes, while knives and cutting instruments appear in 8%. 

Guns are still the weapon of choice in Hawaii for certain crimes, though. In Honolulu last year, guns were used in 14 murders, while knives or cutting instruments were used in six, according to the Honolulu Police Department’s annual report. 

But machete-weilding criminals still grab headlines. 

In July, a 21-year-old man allegedly and smashed cars with a machete in Kalihi, according to KITV. A 19-year-old man with a machete at Ala Moana last June, according to KHON. And in Hilo last November, a 65-year-old was charged with with a machete and hitting a man with a baseball bat, according to Hawaii News Now. 

In April 2023 on Molokai, Maui County police shot and killed 39-year-old Nathaniel Naki, who was holding a machete under his armpit. 

Bill Harrison, a lawyer who is representing Naki’s family in a lawsuit against Maui County and the officers involved in the shooting, said Naki wasn’t wielding the machete in a threatening manner when police opened fire. 

“In this case, the (body camera) video is pretty clear that he never ever challenged them with the machete, it was underneath his arm,” Harrison said. “He may have took a couple steps toward them, but he never brandished the machete at all.” 

Harrison said machetes are common on Molokai, which is largely rural, and Naki used the tool to clear paths in the forest or cut back weeds in the yard. 

The officers were not criminally charged with shooting Naki, but Harrison said he is still reviewing discovery in the civil case. 

Maui Police spokeswoman Alana Pico did not respond to a question about police policy on using deadly force against a person who is holding a knife or machete. 

When asked about Honolulu police policy, spokeswoman Michelle Yu directed a reporter to the department’s use of force policy which restricts use of force to times when it is “objectively reasonable in light of the facts and circumstances as the officer perceived them to be at the time of the incident.” 

‘They’re Everywhere’ 

Takeshi Aoki, owner of Aframes Tokyo, a knife shop and sharpening business in Honolulu’s City Square Shopping Center, said he sells two or three machetes a week, ranging in size from 12-22 inches and price from $29 to over $100. Customers mainly use them for yard work or clearing vegetation, he said. 

They are also sold in many hardware stores, including Home Depot and Lowes. 

Donald Wilkerson, a criminal defense attorney based on the Big Island, said he purchased his last machete on Amazon and uses it to cut through the jungle when he goes hunting. 

“I have two of them,” he said.

Ken Sheffield, who owns a specialty artisan knife shop called Aloha Blade,  said their popularity likely stems back to Hawaii’s plantation days when they were used in the fields to cut fruit and sugar cane. 

Many people still prefer to use machetes over an electric tool like chainsaws because they’re human powered. 

“I believe it’s down to the availability and immediacy of it,” he said. “It’s here, it’s within my hand in two seconds. I don’t have to plug it in and start it up.” 

The ubiquity of them makes it more likely that they’d wind up being used on occasion by someone who wants to commit a crime or defend themselves. 

“They’re cheap, they’re everywhere,” he said. “It’s just what’s at hand, really.”