Few Hawaii gun
applications rejected

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By B.J. Reyes
Star-Bulletin

The state rejected less than 2 percent of applications for private gun permits last year based on background checks, a rate lower than the national average, despite stricter gun laws, a state researcher said yesterday.

A total of 6,489 personal-private firearms permit applications were processed in 2000. Of those, 6,128, or 94.4 percent, were approved to cover 13,617 firearms. More than half of these firearms, 7,228, were imported from out-of-state, according to a report released by the state attorney general's office.

The report said only 118 applications, or 1.8 percent, were rejected for cause, while 243 permits were approved, but subsequently voided after the applicants failed to pick up the permits.

Considering Hawaii's stricter background checks, its rejection rate of 1.8 percent for cause was low compared to the 1999 average of 3 percent reported by state and local agencies using the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System, said Paul Perrone, chief of research for the Attorney General's office.

"The primary difference is that whereas the (FBI) system exclusively checks criminal histories, in Hawaii we check criminal backgrounds as well as mental health records," Perrone said.

But that extra background check hasn't produced a higher than average rejection rate in the state, and Perrone was at a loss to explain it.

"The only apparent explanation is that those who seek to lawfully purchase firearms in Hawaii are by and large a squeaky clean group of individuals," he said.

Of the 118 applications rejected for cause, 42 were denied because of an applicant's history of mental incompetence or treatment.

Fourteen were rejected based on a history of domestic violence, eight for treatment of alcohol addiction, five for drug offenses, two because of restraining orders, and two for juvenile offenses. The remaining rejections were based on other crimes or unspecified reasons.

Most rejections for mental health or drug and alcohol reasons can be resolved with a doctor's note, Perrone said.

While the original rejection is not overturned, a new application can be submitted and approved.

Perrone said he did not know how many second-time applications were approved.

"There's really no way to track that," he said. "If you ever had undergone court ordered mental health treatment and you have that in your past, all you really need is a doctor's note saying the individual is no longer adversely affected and then the application would be approved."