WHEREAS, under section 134-2 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, all persons who wish to acquire ownership of a firearm must first obtain a permit to acquire from the chief of police; and

WHEREAS, under section 134-3 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, all persons who bring a firearm into the State, or who acquire a firearm pursuant to section 134-2 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, must register the firearm in person within five days of arrival or purchase; and

WHEREAS, in order to comply with these statutes, Oahu residents must make three separate trips to the Honolulu Police Department's Firearms Unit, located at the Main Police Station in downtown Honolulu three times: first to apply for the permit, then to pick up the permit, and finally to register the firearm with permit in hand; and

WHEREAS, due to high demand and the time-consuming nature of the procedures involved, firearm owners encounter long lines at the Firearms Unit, and must sometimes wait up to nine hours in order to comply with the requirements of the above statutes, forcing them to take multiple leaves of absence from work and suffer from the resulting income loss; and

WHEREAS, while the Honolulu Police Department uses sworn law enforcement officers to perform the tasks of firearm permit application processing and firearm registration, thus removing officers who could otherwise be patrolling our communities, the police departments of the respective counties are able to free up sworn officers by having non-law enforcement personnel perform these functions; and

WHEREAS, according to the Honolulu Police Department's website, as of February 2016, the Firearms Unit now offers permit applicants and registrants the option to access the necessary forms online, then take completed forms to the Firearms Unit to expedite the permit application and firearm registration processes; and

WHEREAS, while this change is laudable, and could make a discernible difference if the vast majority of permit applicants and firearm registrants were to utilize the online forms, this change alone does not suffice, as there continues to be long wait times at the Firearms Unit at the Main Police Station, compounded by that office's limited hours of operation; and

WHEREAS, according to data collected by the Department of the Attorney General, there were over eleven thousand firearm applications processed in the City and County of Honolulu in 2014, and based on this figure, it can be inferred that the Firearms Unit must process, on average, around forty-four applications per day; and

WHEREAS, although the data does not indicate what percentage of permit applicants and firearm registrants reside on the leeward and windward portions of Oahu, it is reasonable to assume that many of them do not live in the urban core; and

WHEREAS, Oahu's only firearm permit application and registration location is located twelve miles from Kaneohe and twenty-three miles from Kapolei; and

WHEREAS, separate and apart from the issue of long wait times at the Firearms Unit of the Main Police Station, there are many logistical challenges faced by Oahu residents who do not live in the urban core; and

WHEREAS, Hawaii's "place to keep" laws require that when transporting a firearm to complete the in-person registration process, the owner must travel directly from home to the police station and back, with no stops or errands in between; and

WHEREAS, the travel time into downtown Honolulu from other parts of the island, coupled with the difficulty of finding parking near the Main Police Station during weekday business hours, only lengthens the amount of time this process already takes for firearm owners who do not live in the urban core; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, that this body requests the Honolulu Police Department to relieve the strain on the Main Police Station's Firearms Unit as well as the burden on firearm owners residing outside the urban core by opening satellite firearm permit application and registration locations in Kapolei and Kaneohe; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Honolulu Police Department is requested to consider using non-law enforcement personnel to process firearm permit applications and/or firearm registrations at both the Main Police Station and the Kapolei and Kaneohe satellite locations, in order to free up sworn law enforcement officers to perform enforcement duties; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City and County of Honolulu is requested to provide the Honolulu Police Department with any and all additional funding necessary to carry out the requested changes to the present system; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the members of Hawaii's Congressional Delegation in the United States Senate and House of Representatives, the Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu, the Chief of the Honolulu Police Department, the President of the National Rifle Association, and the President of the Hawaii Rifle Association.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Firearm Permits and Registration; Satellite Locations

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	98
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016
STATE OF HAWAII