Hawaii Firearms Coalition

On Friday, Hawaii firearms coalition submitted an amicus brief to the 9th circuit court of appeals in support of Andrew Teter and James Grell in their lawsuit to overturn Hawaii's ban on Butterfly knives.

Our Amicus traces the history of edged weapons in relation to the American right to arms.

"While a 21st century American usually thinks of the right to arms in terms of a right to firearms, the right to arms is considerably broader. Indeed, a likely explanation of the choice of the term “arms” is, during and
before the Framingperiod, soldiers, militia, and civilians alike carried a variety of arms, largely edged ones that ranged from officers’ and gentlemen’s swords to Bowie knifes and utility blades "

To see the brief in full, please visit: https://pdfhost.io/v/RbGbs4GHs_Teter_Amicus_Brief_of_Hawaii_Firearms_Coalitionpdf.pdf

Make sure to follow Hawaii Firearms Coalition attorney Attorney Alan Beck for more info bout this and other important second amendment cases. ... See more

Even tho shooting ranges are allowed to stay open, the city has announced:

*The Koko Head Shooting Complex will be closed to the public during the "Stay at Home" Order, scheduled to be from Aug. 27 through Sept. 9*

I will be calling the mayors office tomorrow for clarification. ... See more

Another Magazine Ban Lawsuit!! BLACKOUT COFFEE COMPANY: https://www.blackoutcoffee.com/gng 10% OFF Coupon: GNG10 Join Hawaii Firearms Coalition: https://hifi...

Over the last week we have been asked A LOT about Duncan v. Becerra and how does it affect Hawaii's law. We have been pretty quiet about it and provided very little feedback.

HERE'S WHY;
Honolulu, Hawaii. August 20th, 2020. Yesterday evening Attorney Alan Beck on behalf of Hawaii Firearms Coalition director Jon Abbott and two other Hawaii residents (Kevin Kacatin and Soleil Roache), filed a lawsuit in the US District Court of Hawaii.

The lawsuit alleges that Hawaii's ban on Handgun magazines with a capacity greater than ten rounds in unconstitutional. HRS 134-8(c) bans the possession of any magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds. The plaintiffs in the case have all stated that if it were not for Hawaii's ban, they would seek to and would own magazines with a larger capacity. Currently, if they were to be found in possession and using said magazines, they would be charged with a Class C felony.

The recent ruling by the 9th Circuit Court in Duncan v. Becerra supports this lawsuit. In that case, the court found that; millions of ammunition magazines able to hold more than 10 rounds are in common use by law-abiding responsible citizens for lawful uses like self-defense. As such, they are protected by the second amendment and can not be subject to a categorical ban.

Applying the same logical steps used by the 9th Circuit Court in Duncan, Hawaii's law is likely to be found unconstitutional. In recent years Hawaii's Firearms Coalition has asked legislators to amend Hawaii's law to remove the capacity based ban, but legislators have been unwilling to do so. The only available course of action left is to have it removed by the courts.

Hawaii Firearms Coalition is a non-profit based in the state of Hawaii that focuses on the second amendment and the right to bear arms. For more information and membership opportunities, please visit www.hifico.org ... See more

For those that were looking for shirts, you can now get them on the web store. We have sizes upto to 3x available in a selection of colors.

Www.hificoshop.com

Let's try this again,

NEW MEMBERSHIP WEBSITE AND ORGANISATION SYSTEM: https://hifico.org/membership/

So, HIFICO has been built from the ground up over the last 2 years, we've had a lot of ups and also some downs.
One of those downs is the poor organization and administration on our membership program. Our system has had to be rebuilt a few times over the last two years, mainly due to anti-gun hosting/stores shutting us down or inflicting delays.

BUT, some of it is due to the amount of time that's been needed to administer the membership. It was taking many hours to run and we fell behind, as such, we failed some of you in our commitments. All of your directors are volunteers, and between work, self-employment, and family time, there is not enough hours in the day.

Over the last few weeks, we have redesigned the system using a new company and a new program. This allows us to do automatic renewals for members as well as offers us a better tracking system.

We have also streamlined the membership options and instead of including a t-shirt, we now include a morale patch. As your membership renews, you will get a new patch each year. That patch is only available to people that have had constant membership.

Because people still want t-shirts we have lowered the cost of them in our store, doing this allows us to offer more colors and styles. People that have outstanding membership orders on the old system will receive coupon codes to receive their t-shirts over the next few weeks.

If you need to renew your membership or want to support us as we support you, you can do so by visiting: www.hifico.org/membership ... See more

A few weeks back we told you the story of Alanoa Nickel And how he was being denied the right to bear arms. Honolulu police department and the state of Hawaii denied him his rights based purely on his status as a US national.

Hawaii Firearms Coalition via their attorney Alan Beck helped filed a lawsuit to stop the enforcement of this clearly unconstitutional law.

Today that lawsuit was settled, the state of Hawaii can no longer deny people the right to Bear arms, based purely on the fact they are US national.

See the order below.

STIPULATION AND ORDER
On July 27, 2020, Plaintiff Alanoa Nickel filed a complaint alleging that he is a resident of the State of Hawaii and wants to apply for a permit to acquire a firearm. He further alleges that he meets all of the eligibility requirements under Hawaii law except for the United States citizenship requirement in Hawaii Revised Statutes
§ 134-2(d). Nickel was born in American Samoa and is a U.S. national but not a U.S. citizen. The complaint points to this Court’s ruling in Fotoudis v. City & County of Honolulu, 54 F. Supp. 3d 1136 (D. Haw. 2014), whereby § 134-2(d) was permanently enjoined as applied to permanent resident aliens, with the Court concluding:
2

Case 1:20-cv-00330-JMS-RT Document 22 Filed 08/10/20 Page 3 of 4 PageID #: 79
Defendants and/or their officers, agents, servants, employees, and all persons in active concert or participation with them who receive actual notice of this injunction, are enjoined from precluding lawful permanent resident aliens residing in the State of Hawaii from applying for a permit to acquire firearms as set forth in HRS § 134-2(d).
Id. at 1145.
The parties agree that the permanent injunction and ruling in Fotoudis should
be extended so as to apply equally in this case.
Therefore, it is stipulated that HRS § 134-2(d)’s citizenship requirement be
permanently enjoined as it applies to non-citizen United States nationals. ... See more

You can still register and vote on the same day statewide. Please spend the 15 minutes it takes to vote for candidates supporting the 2nd Amendment. If you still have your ballot, take it to the drop off location

Voter service centers and ballot drop off
https://elections.hawaii.gov/voter-service-centers-and-places-of-deposit/ ... See more

Over the last several years, there has been some confusion over to the legality of magazines that have a capacity of more than ten rounds in the state of Hawaii. We hope to clear up this confusion.

In the 2020 legislative session, Hawaii's legislators attempted to amend the law to bn ALL magazines that hold more than ten rounds. In doing so, it demonstrated the current legality of rifle magazines in the state.

HRS 134-8 reads;
"(c) The manufacture, possession, sale, barter, trade, gift, transfer, or acquisition of detachable ammunition magazines with a capacity in excess of ten rounds, which are designed for or capable of use with a pistol, is prohibited. This subsection shall not apply to magazines originally designed to accept more than ten rounds of ammunition, which have been modified to accept no more than ten rounds and which are not capable of being readily restored to a capacity of more than ten rounds."

Many retailers mistaken take this to mean that ALL magazines, including those commonly used in AR and AK pattern rifles, are prohibited because those firearms are also mad in a pistol variety. This would be correct if Hawaii did no define these firearms as assault pistols.

HRS 134-1 reads;
" "Assault pistol" means a semiautomatic pistol that accepts a detachable magazine and has two or more of the following characteristics:
(1) An ammunition magazine that attaches to the pistol outside of the pistol grip;
(2) A threaded barrel capable of accepting a barrel extender, flash suppressor, forward hand grip, or silencer;
(3) A shroud that is attached to or partially or completely encircles the barrel and permits the shooter to hold the firearm with the second hand without being burned;
(4) A manufactured weight of fifty ounces or more when the pistol is unloaded;
(5) A centerfire pistol with an overall length of twelve inches or more; or
(6) It is a semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm;"

As such AR, AK and other magazines that would fit these firearms are not pistol magazine but instead would be better defined as "Assult pistol" magazines. These magazines are not prohibited and are completely legal in the state.

If this were not the case, Hawaii would not need to amend its laws as ALL magazines would be prohibited as all firearms can be made into a pistol variety. Luckily for us, HB1902 did not pass this legislative session, so our magazines are safe for at least another year. We expect them to come for them again hard next year, depending on what happens with Duncan v Becerra.

If you come across a local or online retailer who is still not selling these legally allowed magazines to people in Hawaii, Please share this post with the. They are welcome to contact us at info@hifico.org if they have any questions.

Sources:
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol03_Ch0121-0200D/HRS0134/HRS_0134-0001.htm
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol03_Ch0121-0200D/HRS0134/HRS_0134-0008.htm
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=1902 ... See more