Photos from Hawaii Firearms Coalition's post When will politicians stop using tragedies to push their own agendas?
On January 30th, Hawaii Firearms Coalition (HIFICO) held its annual second amendment rally at the state capitol. On February 3rd, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser ran a small article about our event (www.shorturl.at/cjrI3). The report was mostly neutral and mostly accurate (Andrew's shirt was yellow, not green). It mostly spoke of how Hawaii's legislators think that gun owners are rare in Hawaii and that legislators seem to think laws targeting the law-abiding will somehow stop criminals.
A few days after the article on January 6th, in the letter to the editor section of the very same newspaper, we notice a letter from Senator Karl Rhoads (see images with this post). In his Letter Sen. Rhoads notes that the HIFICO rally coincided with the funeral of Officer Tiffany Enriquez, one of two officers who lost their lives in the line of duty on January 19th. In a desperate attempt to shame some of his most vocal critics, Sen. Rhoads decided to use the tragic loss of life to viciously attack HIFICO in an effort to make them look bad in the public eye.
He accuses HIFICO of intentionally orchestrating their event on the very day of the funeral and that, in doing so, we were insensitive to the family of the fallen officer. Any attempt to look at the facts would have easily have given him enough information to know he was wrong. Planning for our rally started in November of 2019 when we chose the date, and our first public announcement went out on December 12th via Facebook, and our permit for the event was issued on January 10th. All of these events happened before the tragic day of January 19th.
On January 28th, we were made aware that Officer Enriquez's funeral procession was going to pass the Hawaii state capital during our planned rally. By this point, we already had responses from more than 100 people saying they were attending the event. With many having to book time off work weeks in advance and others flying in from the neighbor islands, there was no way we could move the date. We immediately sprung into action to handle the situation in a respectful way. Our rally was permitted in front of the capitol on Beretania St from 7:30 am until 2 pm; We made the decision to shut things down at 12:30. We then decided to have everyone put away any signs, flags, and banners and join our legislators in front of the capitol building to pay our respects to the fallen officer.
On the day of the rally during our opening speeches, a moment of silence was held for the fallen officer, and our plan for the day was laid out. Throughout the day, a dozen or so HPD officers stopped by to check in on us, and find out what we planned to do when the procession was passing. We explained how we were shutting down early and that our rally was meant to educate our legislators and had nothing to do with what had happened the previous week. We were thanked, hands were shaken, we wished each other well, and mutual respect was shown.
As the funeral procession drew near, we shut down. We gathered alongside the street, in unity with state sheriffs, legislators, and capitol staff, to say goodbye to a fallen hero. Among our ranks were former military, former officers, doctors, lawyers, and a wide range of Hawaii's residents. As the funeral procession passed, heads were bowed, salutes were given, and prayers were said. At that moment, nobody was there as opponents on different sides of a political view, but as people, drawn together through community, there to show aloha to someone who gave their life to protect and serve and had been taken from us far too soon.
Before writing this response, it took a lot of back and forth between HIFICO's directors, not only to decide on how we should frame our story but also if we should. We did not want to use a tragic event in the same way Sen. Rhoads did, but with that, we knew that if we didn't respond to his letter, people would only know one side.
As we have said before, tragedies like this should not be used to push blame but should be used to bring us together. To show how we can be caring and compassionate even when we don't necessarily agree. ... See more
