Honolulu PD Finds New and Creative Way to Harass Would-Be Gun Owners

Owning a firearm isn’t easy anywhere in Hawaii, but Honolulu may actually be the worst jurisdiction in the country when it comes to exercising our Second Amendment rights. 

Here’s how the process works. You go to a gun shop and find a pistol that you’d like to purchase. Before you can do so, you have to obtain a Permit to Acquire a Firearm, and in order to do that you’ll first need to get a Handgun Safety Training Course Affidavit signed by the firearms instructor who taught the mandated course. 

Now, if you’re a first-time gun owner you might not know who is authorized to teach those classes. You could ask the Honolulu Police Department for a list of verified instructors, but if you do, be prepared to file a Uniform Information Practices Act request (Hawaii’s version of a Freedom of Information Act request) to get that simple information. 

Honolulu Police Department has decided not to make its list of verified firearms instructors publicly available on its website or when asked in person, even though other counties in Hawaii do.

Instead, HPD has stated that the only way to obtain the list is by submitting a UIPA… pic.twitter.com/JNZolDVgrH

— Hawaii Firearms Coalition (HIFICO) (@hificoorg) February 27, 2026

Honolulu Police Department has decided not to make its list of verified firearms instructors publicly available on its website or when asked in person, even though other counties in Hawaii do.Instead, HPD has stated that the only way to obtain the list is by submitting a UIPA (public records) request.If that is the process they’ve chosen, then we will follow it. We will be submitting a request for the instructor list every single day — 365 days a year — to ensure the public has access to the most current and accurate information available.If the only way to keep an updated copy of a public record is to request it daily, then that’s exactly what we will do.Transparency should not require a workaround.

This is absolutely nuts, and the only conceivable reason to keep this list under lock and key is to add another layer of complexity to exercising a fundamental civil right. The Hawaii Firearms Coalition also provided info on how to submit your own UIPA request to get a copy of the list, and I hope that the PD is flooded with so many requests that they decide to do the painfully obvious right thing and simply make that list available online. 

Once you do complete your training and have your affidavit in hand, you have to make an in-person visit to the Honolulu Police Department’s Firearm Unit. There, you’ll need to provide the affidavit, your photo I.D. and your completed Permit to Acquire a Firearm application, which must include the make, model, caliber, type (revolver , semiautomatic, etc.) and serial number.

You’ll also have to fill out a Mental Health Waiver, Medical Information Waiver, HIPAA Authorization to Release Protected Health Information Waiver, and a 12-page Firearms Application Questionnaire. 

The Honolulu PD will make you wait 14 days to pick up your permit, even if they process your application much sooner. And don’t delay, because the permit is only good for 26 calendar days. 

With all of these ridiculous regulations, it’s no wonder that Hawaii has one of the lowest rates of gun ownership in the United States. Hawaiian officials have defended their gun control laws by arguing that there’s never been a culture of gun ownership in the islands, but that ignores the fact that the government is actively trying to suppress the establishment of a culture of lawful gun owners by putting so many barriers between Hawaiians and their Second Amendment rights.

Groups like the Hawaii Firearms Coalition and Hawaii Rifle Association, as well as attorneys like Alan Beck, have been chipping away at these draconian restrictions for years now, but as the Honolulu PD’s efforts to keep the list of valid firearms instructors secret shows, there is still a long way to go before the state is in compliance with the Constitution. 

Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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