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The sale and possession of electronic guns became legal in Hawaii on Jan. 1, but it will be at least several weeks before they are available to the public.
A half-dozen gun shops contacted by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser said they are awaiting shipments of the weapons, expected to arrive later this month, and had not yet obtained licenses from county authorities.
Several of the dealers said they were still working on getting staff trained and meeting other licensing requirements, and there also seemed to be widespread confusion about certain aspects of the state’s new e-gun law, in particular the procedures for completing a sale.
That hasn’t stopped people from rushing to sign up for four-hour e-gun training classes at $200 and up.
Public interest in the newly legal e-guns is “very, very high” and includes current gun owners and others who wouldn’t dream of possessing a regular firearm, according to Raymond Craig, a retired Honolulu police officer who runs SMARTrainingHi in Kalihi.
“The people with firearms know they can’t carry in the state so they want to have something,” he said. “The other side is people who are like, ‘I would never carry a firearm because that’s beyond what I want to do; whereas, this is something that would be effective and at the same time not cause the type of injuries that a firearm could, so I think I would be a lot more comfortable using this one.’
“I’m getting both sides, and both are perfectly very valid and very good reasons.”
Hawaii Revised Statutes 134-81 defines electric guns — commonly referred to as stun guns and Tasers — “as any portable device that is designed to discharge electric energy, charge, voltage, or current into the body through direct contact or utilizing a projectile.”
Taser devices, the most popular brand for law enforcement and civilian use, resemble handguns and fire two electrodes attached to long, insulated wires. The devices emit 50,000 volts that cause the attacker’s muscles to contract. According to the Taser website, the devices are effective within 15 feet and can immobilize an attacker for up to 30 seconds.
The Taser Pulse, designed for civilian use, weighs 8 ounces and is priced at $400 on the company’s website, including lithium battery and two single-use, CO2-powered cartridges.
Stun guns, which can sell for under $50 and come in sizes that easily fit inside a purse, generally don’t pack nearly as big a wallop as Tasers and are effective only when pressed directly against an attacker. The resulting shock causes a sharp, jolting pain that stuns and repels.
Use of either type of device is limited by law to self-defense, defense of another person or protection of property.
HAWAII is one of the last states to legalize e-guns. Officials have said the new law, passed by the Legislature last year and signed by Gov. David Ige in July, was necessitated by a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling rejecting a decision by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts that upheld that state’s ban on private ownership of stun guns.
That case raised questions about the constitutionality of Hawaii’s e-gun prohibition, which was subsequently challenged in a 2018 lawsuit filed in federal court by a Hawaii resident claiming the law infringed on his Second Amendment rights.
Anticipating the Hawaii ban would be similarly stuck down, then-state Attorney General Clare Connors, who was sworn in last week as U.S. attorney for the District of Hawaii, proposed that it be repealed and a new set of rules established to ensure some sort of regulation of the sale, possession and use of e-guns.
Under the new law, e-guns may be purchased only through a business or individual licensed by the counties. On Oahu, licenses are issued by the Business License Office under the city Department of Customer Services’ Motor Vehicle, Licensing and Permits Division.
E-gun vendors must apply for the licenses annually and pay a $50 fee. The Honolulu Police Department will conduct background and training checks to determine applicants’ eligibility for a business license to sell e-guns.
The Department of Customer Services reported Thursday that only four applications to conduct e-gun sales had been submitted so far.
The new law prohibits ownership or possession of the devices by anyone under 21 years of age. Among others banned from possessing e-guns are “fugitives from justice”; anyone formally charged with or convicted of a felony, violent crime or illegal drug sale; anyone subject to a court restraining order; anyone who has been under treatment or counseling for alcohol or substance abuse; and anyone diagnosed with a significant behavioral, emotional or mental disorder.
It also is illegal for anyone other than the owner to possess an e-gun, even if they have the owner’s permission. And, as with firearms, there are rules regarding safe storage of the devices out of reasonable reach of children.
UNLIKE regular gun sales in Hawaii, there is no mandated waiting period to purchase an e-gun and buyers do not need to formally register the devices, although vendors are required to maintain records of sales and to provide those records to police if necessary.
Similar to regular gun sales, a criminal background check of the buyer is required before the sale can be completed, and the statute makes it clear — in HRS 134-84(f) — this is the vendor’s responsibility.
In response to questions from the Star-Advertiser, the state Department of the Attorney General emphasized that county police departments will not conduct the checks and it won’t do buyers any good to print out their own criminal background report from the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center or other sources to present to vendors.
“It is the licensee’s (seller’s) responsibility,” a spokesman said via email.
So, depending on each vendor’s policies, there may be an informal waiting period while a background check is conducted; the gun stores contacted by the Star-Advertiser indicated they were still figuring out their in-house procedures.
Despite the apparent popularity of e-gun classes, buyers are not required to undergo formal safety training or certification. However, the new law mandates that vendors must provide “an informational briefing” to the buyer that includes the safe use and handling of e-guns; “the effects, dangers, risks and limitations of electric guns”; state laws regulating the devices; and proper disposal.
Before the sale is completed, buyers must sign a declaration stating their criminal background check is accurate. Also required is a separate document signed by both the seller and buyer certifying that the information briefing was completed and that the buyer understood the briefing.
CRAIG, a certified Taser trainer who retired in 2019 after 25 years with HPD, won’t be selling e-guns but already has been providing training to vendors and conducted his first class for the public Saturday at his Kalihi business. He said any initial confusion over the new e-gun law is to be expected.
“This is just a growing period. It’s just a matter of the latest info getting out to everybody and us adjusting to it right now,” he said.
Craig, who is a member of HPD’s reserve corps, explained that he likes to remind those who take his classes that Tasers “are not a replacement for deadly force.”
“Hawaii is very safe, I will say that, but we both know that there is crime here and people want to feel safe here. This would be a great tool for that,” he said. “That being said, using a worst-case scenario, if somebody comes into your house and they have a weapon, I wouldn’t take a Taser to a gunfight — you know what I mean?
“Somebody who thinks that with this product ‘I’m going to be totally safe because it works and incapacitates,’ yes it can, if certain criteria are met, and that’s why I always recommend that you need to be trained, you need to go to a class that covers that kind of stuff.”
The criteria include making contact with both projectiles fired from a Taser.
“If you miss with one of the darts, you’re not completing the circuit,” Craig said. “We’ve seen that with law enforcement: ‘Why didn’t they use the Taser? Why didn’t the Taser work?’”
Davy Takayama of SWAT Gun Club offers four-hour Taser training classes for $200 at 808 Gun Club in Kakaako.
“We get calls every day, emails every day asking about the new law or how to obtain one,” he said.
Takayama’s business started as a Waikiki shooting range catering to international visitors who wanted the experience of firing a gun. When COVID-19 shut down tourism, he pivoted to local clientele. Then last year, with Hawaii’s e-gun law set to take effect in 2022, “I figured that as a range safety officer I could take that same knowledge and teach people and train and educate them in the use of a Taser so they don’t just think of it as some kind of toy.”
He, too, was awaiting clarification of some of the details of the new e-gun law.
“Like any new law, especially something like this that’s high profile, it’s gonna have a few hiccups in the beginning. Hopefully it clears up,” he said.
808 GUN Club is also where Russell Tanji of RSTA Consultant LLC offers classes as a senior firearms instructor and a master Taser trainer for the state of Hawaii. The former police officer, who served 26 years with HPD before retiring in 2004, held his first sold-out class Friday and has another — also full — scheduled for Jan. 28, with a third session planned for Feb. 4.
“It’s 50/50,” Tanji said of the people who have been signing up for training. “People with firearms know the capability and the risk involved with a firearm so they are looking for a second alternative that is a less-than-lethal tool. And some people actually refuse to have a gun but they want something — that’s probably the other percentage right now of what I see with all the people who are emailing me and making requests about training.”
Although Hawaii’s new e-gun law doesn’t spell out the circumstances under which use of e-guns would be justified for self-defense, and most firearm training classes don’t cover the topic, Tanji advises anyone who buys one of the devices to bone up on Hawaii’s “protection of self” law to avoid discharging a Taser or stun gun at the mere hint of a threat.
HPD would not comment on whether police are concerned e-guns will be used wantonly or for illicit purposes.
On Dec. 2, before the devices were legalized, a trio of robbers drove a pickup truck into the Segway of Hawaii store in Kakaako after reportedly attacking a security guard with what appeared to be a stun gun.
A section of the state’s new e-gun law establishes criminal offenses for using e-guns in the commission of a misdemeanor or felony.
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Hawaii’s new electric gun law
A new law effective Jan. 1 allows the sale and possession of electric guns, commonly referred to as stun guns and Tasers.
Use of e-guns
>> Limited to self-defense, defense of another person or protection of property.
Who cannot own or possess an e-gun
>> Anyone under the age of 21.
>> Fugitives from justice; anyone under indictment or bound over to circuit court for, or convicted of, a felony, any crime of violence, or illegal drug sale.
>> Anyone subject to a court restraining order.
>> Anyone who is or has been under treatment or counseling for addiction to, abuse of, or dependence upon any dangerous, harmful or detri- mental drug or intoxicating liquor.
>> Anyone who is or has been diagnosed as having a significant behavioral, emotional or mental disorder; or who has been acquitted of a crime on the grounds of mental disease, disorder or defect.
>> No one shall possess an electric gun that is owned by another, regardless of whether the owner has consented.
Sale of e-guns
>> E-gun vendors must apply annually for a $50 business license to sell e-guns and at least once every three years complete an e-gun safety or training course.
>> Licensees must conduct a criminal history background check of buyers and provide an informational briefing that includes the safe use and handling of e-guns; the effects, dangers, risks and limitations of the devices; existing state laws; and proper disposal.
Source: Hawaii Revised Statutes 134, sections 81-90
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