Bill Text: HI SB69 | 2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Firearm Registration
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Passed) 2013-07-09 - Act 254, 7/2/2013 (Gov. Msg. No. 1357). [SB69 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2013-SB69-Introduced.html
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
69 |
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TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2013 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to firearms.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that from the year 2000 to the year 2011, the number of permit applications for firearms processed annually in Hawaii grew by 136.9 per cent. In this same time period, the number of firearms registered annually grew by 170.3 per cent. In 2011, 15,357 personal or private firearm permit applications were processed in the State of Hawaii, a 20.1 per cent increase from the previous year. Although Hawaii has an estimated population of only 1,360,000, the attorney general estimates that there are at least one million privately owned firearms in Hawaii.
The legislature finds that gun violence continues to be a challenge within the United States. On July 20, 2012, an assailant entered a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and shot and killed twelve people, wounding fifty-eight others. On December 11, 2012, a gunman killed two individuals at a mall in Portland, Oregon. On December 14, 2012, twenty children and six adults were killed in a deadly shooting in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
Unfortunately, gun violence exists in Hawaii as well. On May 23, 2011, a middle school student in Pearl City shot a loaded gun on campus before the start of the school day, injuring one student. On June 3, 2011, one woman was killed and two were injured in a random shooting spree that began at a busy intersection on Kapiolani boulevard in Honolulu. On January 2, 2013, two officers were shot and injured by an unknown assailant when investigating noise complaints in Hilo. In all, firearms were used in nineteen per cent of Hawaii murders in 2011. In addition, only ten per cent of the $201,179 worth of firearms stolen in Hawaii in 2011 have been recovered.
In an effort to assist law enforcement in curbing gun violence, the legislature would like to appropriate funds to institute a gun buy-back program. A gun buy-back program decreases the availability of guns in the community by providing cash incentives to gun possessors to forfeit their firearms. Various gun buy-back programs have been instituted in states throughout the country, including one sponsored by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development that was implemented in 1999 in approximately ninety locations, including Hawaii. In December, a gun buy-back program in Los Angeles netted 2,037 firearms in a single day. Although it is difficult to estimate how many lives are saved when individuals voluntarily forfeit their guns for cash, fewer guns provide fewer avenues for gun violence.
SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $100,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2013-2014 and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2014-2015 for the establishment of a gun buy-back program to be allocated as follows:
$ to the Honolulu police department;
$ to the Maui police department;
$ to the Hawaii police department; and
$ to the Kauai police department.
The sums appropriated shall be expended by the counties for the purposes of this Act.
SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2013.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Guns Buy-back Program; Appropriation
Description:
Appropriates $100,000 to the county police departments to initiate a gun buy-back program.
The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
