A Hawaii man denied a “permit to acquire” a firearm in the County of Hawaii has successfully challenged that denial, dealing a blow to the state’s restrictive gun control regime.
In May 2025, plaintiff Paul Kealoha filed for a permit. The following month, Kealoha received a letter telling him he was being denied due to an alleged incident in 2024 involving the “capture [of] wild pigs and dispatch[ing of] them.” Police were called to investigate the sound of gunfire, which happened to be Kealoha’s legal eradication of feral hogs. Attorneys Alan Beck and Kevin O’Grady were able to successfully secure a stipulated judgement ordering the processing of Kealoha’s application sans a denial for any non-disqualifying factors.
The order from U.S. District Judge Micah W.J. Smith said that the issuing authorities “shall not deny any PTA based only on a police report if the applicant is not also being prosecuted for a felony, a crime of violence, a criminal offense relating to firearms, or an illegal sale or distribution of any drug in a court in this State or elsewhere, related to the allegations in the police report, with such criminal prosecution being evidenced by a then existing criminal complaint, information or indictment.”
Kealoha’s denial pointed to a broader issue concerning the permitting process, addressed in the complaint.
“This action challenges the constitutionality of County’s Hawaii Police Department Rules regarding the granting or denial of PTA permits that make it extremely difficult, if not outright impossible or impermissibly time consuming, for Plaintiff and others to obtain PTA and therefore to exercise their right to be armed, as guaranteed by the Second Amendment’s text ‘bear arms,’ and as recognized and reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen,” the complaint stated.
In addition to the denial being challenged on the grounds of it being born via allegations in a police report without any actual convictions, Beck and O’Grady went after how the law is contrary to footnote #9 of Bruen. The first element highlighted in the complaint concerning the unconstitutionality of the law was that “[t]he use of discretion in the issuance of PTA” was allowed.
This is a win for all who may come after Kealoha. The stipulated judgement and permanent injunction notes that the order is applicable to “any” permit to acquire applicants.
The order coming in the form of a stipulated judgement does not come as a shock. Beck has an impressive track record of stomping unconstitutional laws into submission. The arguments provided in the brief are very robust and could have potentially gutted a larger portion of the statute. At this stage of the game, anytime Hawaii sees a filing from Beck and his colleagues, they should automatically yield without question and request a stipulated judgement to save time and money.
“This is my 7th victory against Hawaii County. With each lawsuit we are getting closer to normalizing firearm rights in Hawaii County,” attorney Alan Beck told Bearing Arms. “I am proud of the work we have done here and I am hopeful that the volume of lawsuits I have filed against Hawaii County will incentive it to preemptively audit its firearm policies and reform its system.”
We’ll continue to watch the happenings in Hawaii and certainly any actions that Beck and O’Grady are involved in.
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