The state’s latest gun control measure landed in court because of a lawsuit by three Maui residents who want to carry guns on beaches and other places deemed sensitive by the law, which took effect this month and involves a misdemeanor offense.
In a court filing, the state said the law is crucial not only for public safety but for the economy. Hawaii’s beaches “are the most popular recreational tourist activity” and a “central pillar” of a $19-billion tourism industry, the state said. In an indication of how vigorously Hawaii is defending the law, the state attorney general’s office has brought in Neal Katyal, a Washington, D.C., corporate attorney and former acting U.S. solicitor general, to serve as a “special deputy attorney general” on the case.
Hawaii is still getting used to allowing residents to carry firearms in public after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year expanded gun rights nationwide, finding that people have a right to carry for self-defense. Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm highlighted the issue of where people can carry guns when he announced the murder indictment earlier this week of Myron Takushi, who is accused of fatally shooting a man in a sports bar July 19.