(RepublicanNews.org) – The highest court in Hawaii has determined that the island state has the right to enforce its own gun control laws, including forbidding the carrying of firearms in public. Justice Todd Eddins, of the Hawaii Supreme Court, stated that he and his colleagues have interpreted the Second Amendment of the American Constitution differently to the US Supreme Court and found that there is no constitutional right to carry a gun in public.
Eddins spoke about the “Spirit of Aloha”, evoking the island’s particular culture and heritage and claiming that it clashes with a “federally mandated lifestyle” that allows people to keep “deadly weapons” on their person as they go about their daily business. He stated his belief that the state’s strict gun control measures have helped to maintain its “peace and tranquility”. He criticized the idea of basing current firearm legislation on historical context, as per the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in the case of New York State Pistol & Rifle Association v. Bruen.
The ruling came after the 2017 case of Christopher Wilson, a Hawaii citizen who was arrested and charged with firearms offenses after being found with a loaded handgun on his person which he told officers he had purchased in Florida four years prior. The gun was not registered in Hawaii and Wilson had not applied for the necessary permit; consequently, he was charged with improperly holding ammunition and a firearm. Wilson argued that his Second Amendment rights had been violated, a claim that the trial judge accepted in his first hearing. However, the state of Hawaii appealed this ruling, eventually escalating the matter to the state’s Supreme Court, which went on to reject Wilson’s claim that he could carry an unlicensed firearm for self-defense as per the Second Amendment.
In the unanimous ruling, the Hawaii Supreme Court judges stated their view that the Second Amendment referred more to militias, rather than to individual citizens, and so they rejected Wilson’s argument that he should be able to publicly arm himself for self-defense. They also emphasized the importance placed on other constitutional rights, such as the rights to life and the pursuit of happiness, which they claimed would be at odds with the public carrying firearms.
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