Gun permits total 6,738

2004 isle firearms applicants
totaled 6,842, but 104 were
rejected for various reasons

Private and personal firearm permit applications in Hawaii rose 0.7 percent last year from 2003 and 5.4 percent from 2000.

The number of permit applications statewide last year totaled 6,842.

The permits covered 14,661 registered firearms, nearly 44 percent of which were rifles, nearly 40 percent were handguns and more than 16 percent were shotguns.

Of the 6,842 applications, 1.5 percent or 104 applications were rejected for various reasons.

That falls below the national rejection rate average of 1.9 percent for all state and local agencies.

---

---

An additional 3.5 percent, or 237 applications, were voided in Hawaii last year for failure by the applicants to return for their permits.

Most of the rejections were not based on applicants' criminal histories, but rather on mental health issues/treatment (35.6 percent) and other disqualifying factors such as being a non-U.S. citizen.

A convicted felon and anyone convicted of a crime of violence or domestic violence forfeits his Second Amendment rights.

However, a drunken-driving conviction, which does not fall in any of the above categories, is considered a form of mental health treatment and is a reason for rejection, noted Paul Perrone, chief of research and statistics with the Department of the Attorney General.

Other reasons for rejection in 2004 include: other offense (26 percent), domestic violence offense (17.3 percent), disqualifying juvenile offense (5.8 percent), temporary restraining order (3.8 percent) and drug offense (1.9 percent). (The figures do not total 100 percent due to multiple disqualifying factors for some applicants and missing data for one case.)

The majority of rejections in 2004 were for long-arm applications (85.6 percent) as opposed to handgun applications (14.4 percent).

The application process differs for the two.

Handgun applicants must first select the firearm and provide detailed information such as make, model and serial number when applying, whereas long-arm applicants do not need to provide such information initially.