HONOLULU (KHON2) — A gun control bill that has drawn recent attention is at a critical point in the State Legislature.
Advocates are pushing for it to move forward before a deadline on April 23 while opponents warn it could hurt responsible gun owners.
The bill would ban the future sale and transfer of assault rifles and shotguns in Hawaii and would mark one of the most sweeping gun restrictions proposed in years.
“This is a bill that will close the assault rifle loophole and make it much, much harder to buy weapons like AR 15s, AK 47s, which are the weapons of choice of mass shooters,” said Everytown for Gun Safety National Veteran Lead Chris Marvin.
The legislation needs to be assigned senate conferees to stay alive.
Supporters said it builds on Hawaii’s already strict firearm laws where assault pistols are already banned.
“So we’re talking about rifles and shotguns,” said Moms Demand Action Hawaii Chapter Events Lead Rachel Logan. “But you won’t be able, civilians won’t be able to purchase new assault weapons moving forward.”
The proposed law draws inspiration from the 1994 federal assault weapons ban, but has changes tailored to Hawaii.
“In Hawaii, we’ve honed that definition to make it most effective for what our state needs to ban the weapons that are most deadly,” Marvin said.
The decision on whether the assault rifle and shotgun ban bill will stay alive needs to be made by April 23. Those in opposition said it will only affect law-abiding gun owners if it passes.
“Because criminals don’t abide by the law,” said Rep. Diamond Garcia, “They ain’t tracking what bills are being changed here here at the legislature each year, they don’t care. Criminals are using ghost guns, illegal firearms, guns with no serial numbers on them.”
Senate president Ron Kouchi said he expects conferees to be assigned on April 22, and advocates spent the afternoon to visit lawmaker offices and stress their point.
“Because if we don’t, they don’t appoint the committee members on time, then the bill will die in conference. So we’ve seen a little bit of dragging of feet of appointees of members. So we’re here to remind everyone that this bill is important,” Logan said.
Those in opposition said it is a political move that will have unintended consequences.
“Other jurisdictions where there are similar strict gun laws, Chicago, Atlanta, they have high death rates and high gun usage rates,” Rep. Garcia said.