Number of firearms owned in Hawaii spikes, nearly same number as state population

www.guns.com...

I came across this article earlier today. While Hawaii is one of the most restrictive states on firearm ownership, permits and registration has spiked dramatically in the past few years. For example, in 2012 registrations have gone up a whopping 73% since 2011.

In 2012, permits totaled 21,864, an increase from 15,375 permits issued in 2011. However, firearms registrations in 2012 were at a tremendous 50,394, up 73 percent from the previous record high in 2011 of 36,804. Since the year 2000, permits have soared an astonishing 336.9 percent and registrations have gone up 370.1 percent.

You can also check out the report the above link is referring to here ag.hawaii.gov...

*The report is from the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General

The original article does mention that crime has gone down to in recent years.

According to the report, “The violent Index Crime rate in Hawaii decreased 4.8% in 2011, and the property Index Crime rate decreased 4.9%, reaching its lowest level on record for the State of Hawaii.” Those violent crimes include murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft and vehicle theft. Total crime for the state was down nine percent for 2011, setting record lows across the board.

I would like to think that increased firearm ownership has contributed to this decrease in crime, but I cannot find "100% proof" that it has. Plus CCW permits are extremely hard to come by in Hawaii, so there's barely anyone walking around CCing (legally).

And those law-abiding gun owners will go to great lengths to ensure that they are able to lawfully exercise their Second Amendment rights in the state, where it’s not unusual to wait in line for as long as nine hours to either obtain or turn in paperwork for a permit. Registering a handgun takes even greater perseverance, as the law requires three trips to the police department and two trips to the store where the gun was purchased in order to obtain a permit.

At the closing of the article, it says that there are "now has more firearms in the state than its 1.3 million residents."

But when I was checking back on the report from the Hawaii AG, there actually may not be "that many" firearms, but it's pretty dang close.

Here's what the AG report said.

Although there is no way to track the number of firearms that permanently leave the state,
independent estimates made during the late-1990s by the Department of the Attorney General and the
City & County of Honolulu Police Department placed the total number of privately owned firearms in
Hawaii at roughly one million.

I found it pretty interesting that in one of the most restrictive states to firearm ownership, there's nearly 1 gun per person there. Until I read this, I was under the impression that Hawaii was one of the states with the least amount of guns per people.

Here's a few more interesting figures from the AG report.

*Number of Licenses to Carry Firearms permits applied for in 2012

Four private citizens applied for a concealed carry license in the City & County of Honolulu, and one applied in Maui County, and all five were denied at the discretion of the respective county police chief

*Number of confiscations by police when attempting to register a firearm

During 2012, the Maui Police Department’s firearm registration section confiscated one legally prohibited firearm; a rifle with a defaced serial number.

-ETA - not exactly sure which forum to put this in, feel free to move

Cool, good to know!

I would imagine that this must defiantly help lower the crime rate, like it has been shown to in other States.


I came across this and thought it was interesting, Hawaii isn't listed on the gun violence map.

reply to post by buni11687


Well, when you consider how many bases all five of the armed forces have in Hawaii, you get a sense of why that might be the case.

reply to post by FuZe7


I would imagine that this must defiantly help lower the crime rate, like it has been shown to in other States.





Yes, because we all know that the Samoan history is full of violence, to include hand to hand combat with pineapples...


OP: if the state stopped electing Dems they would be fine...