{"id":94065,"date":"2023-07-03T12:48:22","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T17:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=94065"},"modified":"2023-07-03T12:48:22","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T17:48:22","slug":"94065","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=94065","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The sun may be out, but guns are not. Lawsuit challenges a new gun ban on Hawaii beaches<\/a><\/p>\n

HONOLULU\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span>
\nSun\u2019s out, guns out? Not on Hawaii\u2019s world-famous beaches.<\/p>\n

Beginning Saturday, a new law prohibits carrying a firearm on the sand \u2014 and in other places, including banks, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.<\/p>\n

Three Maui residents are suing to block the measure, arguing that Hawaii \u2014 which has long had some of the strictest gun laws in the nation and some of the lowest rates of gun violence \u2014 is going too far with its wide-ranging ban.<\/p>\n

Residents carrying guns in public is new to\u00a0Hawaii<\/a>. Before a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year expanded gun rights nationwide, Hawaii\u2019s county police chiefs made it virtually impossible to carry a gun by rarely issuing permits to do so \u2014 either for open carry or concealed carry. Gun owners were only allowed to keep firearms in their homes or to transport them \u2014 unloaded and locked up \u2014 to shooting ranges, hunting areas and places such as repair shops.<\/p>\n

The high court\u2019s ruling found that people in the U.S. have a right to carry firearms for self-defense. It prompted the state to retool its gun laws, with Democratic Gov. Josh Green signing legislation in early June to allow more people to carry concealed firearms.<\/p>\n

At the same time, however, the new law prohibits people from taking guns to a wide range of places, including beaches, hospitals, stadiums, bars and movie theaters. Private businesses allowing guns must post a sign to that effect.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, which the three residents and the Hawaii Firearms Coalition filed in U.S. District Court in Honolulu last week, doesn\u2019t challenge all the prohibited locations. But bans on carrying at beaches and parks, in family restaurants or in bank parking lots where people might be getting cash from ATMs are \u201cegregious restrictions on their 2nd Amendment right to bear arms,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of crime at some of the parks and beaches,\u201d said Todd Yukutake, a director of the coalition. \u201cAnd it can be very scary at some of these beach parks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alan Beck, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said his clients especially want to protect themselves at isolated beaches, where they might be fishing or going for a walk rather than sunbathing or swimming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is it\u2019s probably safer at Waikiki Beach during the day when there\u2019s, you know, thousands of people around,\u201d he said of Honolulu\u2019s tourist mecca. \u201cBut a lot of these beaches in Hawaii aren\u2019t the beaches people think of when, you know, they see movies or TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guns at beaches is not the image that tourism-dependent Hawaii wants to project, said Democratic state Sen. Karl Rhoads.<\/p>\n

\u201cA sensitive place is a place where you would not expect there to be guns,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere you expect to have a good time and not have to worry about violence and being shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawaii\u2019s beaches are \u201cthe livelihood of our state in many ways,\u201d said Chris Marvin, a Hawaii resident with the gun-violence prevention group Everytown for Gun Safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they are safe today. By allowing people to carry guns on them, they will become less safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalled the \u201cpandemonium\u201d that ensued last year when a man brandished a gun on Waikiki Beach, causing tourists \u201cto run for their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit doesn\u2019t challenge restrictions on carrying guns at bars, but the plaintiffs don\u2019t see why family restaurants that serve alcohol should be included, Beck said. As for banks: Going to an ATM at night is \u201cprime time for someone to try and mug you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Legal challenges to similar laws adopted in New York and New Jersey last year are making their way through federal courts.<\/p>\n

A federal appeals court temporarily agreed to keep in effect part of New Jersey\u2019s handgun carry law, which also includes public beaches, as court proceedings play out.<\/p>\n

In January, the high court ruled that New York can continue to enforce its sweeping law that bans guns from places including schools, playgrounds and Times Square.<\/p>\n

Hawaii\u2019s law reflects a \u201cvast reach that goes beyond any other jurisdiction to date,\u201d said Kevin O\u2019Grady, another lawyer representing the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

The restrictions render concealed carry permits virtually useless, he said.<\/p>\n

The Hawaii attorney general\u2019s office said in a statement that the law is constitutional and vowed to defend it.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi is scheduled to hear a motion for a temporary restraining order blocking the law on July 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sun may be out, but guns are not. Lawsuit challenges a new gun ban on Hawaii beaches HONOLULU\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Sun\u2019s out, guns out? Not on Hawaii\u2019s world-famous beaches. Beginning Saturday, a new law prohibits carrying a firearm on the sand \u2014 and in other places, including banks, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. Three Maui … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,50,8,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courts","category-goobermint","category-rkba","category-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94066,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94065\/revisions\/94066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}