Last updated .

With very few exceptions, all firearms in Hawaii must exist registered. To acquire a firearm, either through buy, gift, inheritance, or any other manner, all persons must first obtain a permit (see the Hawaii Licensing of Gun Owners or Purchasers department) and then must annals the firearm with the canton law master within five days of acquiring information technology.1 The registration must include the proper name of the manufacturer and importer, model, type of activeness, caliber or gauge, serial number, and source from which the firearm was obtained, including the proper noun and address of the prior registrant. If the firearm has no serial number, the permit number shall be entered in the space provided for the serial number, and the let number shall be engraved upon the receiver portion of the firearm prior to registration.2

All registration data that would identify the individual registering the firearm by name or accost are confidential and shall not be disclosed to anyone, except if required by a law enforcement agency for the lawful performance of its duties or as may exist required by order of a court.3

Country or federally licensed dealers shall annals their firearms, but are not required to accept the firearms physically inspected by the primary of police at the time of registration.4

Under state police force, every person arriving in Hawaii who brings or causes to exist brought into Hawaii a firearm must annals the firearm within five days of the person'due south or the firearm's inflow, whichever arrives later.5 Individuals nether the historic period of 21 are prohibited from bringing firearms into the land.half dozen When registering their firearm, such persons must be fingerprinted and photographed by the police department of the county of registration, although this requirement shall be waived where fingerprints and photographs are already on file with the law section.vii The law department must perform an inquiry on the person past using the National Instant Criminal Groundwork Check Organisation earlier whatever determination to register a firearm is made.viii

In 2016, Hawaii enacted a law authorizing canton police departments to enroll firearms permit applicants and individuals who are registering their firearms into the federal Rap Back service. The FBI defines the Rap Back service as a service that "allows authorized agencies to receive notification of activity on individuals who hold positions of trust (eastward.1000. school teachers, daycare workers) or who are under criminal justice supervision or investigation, thus eliminating the demand for repeated background checks on a person from the same applicant agency."ix

State law too provides that a nonresident alien may bring into the land up to ten firearms non otherwise prohibited by law for a continuous flow not to exceed 90 days for firing range or target shooting activities.x

State law exempts the following firearms from the registration requirement:

  1. Any device that is designed to burn loose black powder or that is a firearm manufactured earlier 1899;
  2. Any device not designed to burn down or made incapable of beingness readily restored to burn; or
  3. All unserviceable firearms and subversive devices registered with the Agency of Booze, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of the U.S. Section of Justice pursuant to Championship 27, Code of Federal Regulations.xi

In an effort to better runway the number of firearms in the country, in 2020, Hawaii enacted a law requiring every person who permanently moves firearms out of the land to contact and notify the county police force department in the canton where the firearms are registered nigh the removal of the firearms within five days of the removal from the state.12

MEDIA REQUESTS

Our experts tin can speak to the full spectrum of gun violence prevention issues. Accept a question? Electronic mail us at media@giffords.org.

Contact
  1. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 134-3(b).[↩]
  2. Id.[↩]
  3. Id.[↩]
  4. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 134-3(c).[↩]
  5. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 134-3(a).[↩]
  6. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 134-iii(f).[↩]
  7. Id.[↩]
  8. Id.[↩]
  9. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 134-two, iii; 846-2.vii(b)(42.[↩]
  10. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 134-3(a).[↩]
  11. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 134-3(d).[↩]
  12. Haw. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 134-three(e).[↩]