Hawaii’s Supreme Court declares the Second Amendment clashes with ‘the spirit of Aloha’ and says ‘there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public’

The Hawaii Supreme Court ignored recent Supreme Court precedent in a recent case and upheld state law prohibit the carrying of firearms in public without a permit.

“The spirit of Aloha clashes with a federally mandated lifestyle that allows citizens to carry deadly weapons during everyday activities,” Judge Todd Eddins wrote in a unanimous 5-0 decision.

In Wednesday’s ruling, the court said it disagreed with recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings interpreting the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, which is also repeated almost verbatim in Article 1, Section 17 of the State Constitution of Hawaii.

“We read these words differently than the current Supreme Court of the United States,” Eddins wrote. “We believe that there is no constitutional right to carry a firearm in public in Hawaii.”

On the contrary, the court argued, the right was “militia-oriented.”

Michael Wilson (left) and Todd W. Eddins (right) were among the justices who declared that the Second Amendment is “contrary to the spirit of Aloha.”

The court also reversed a lower court’s dismissal of two charges filed against Paia man Christopher Wilson, 47, after he was arrested for criminal trespass while carrying an unregistered handgun.

The case against Wilson dates back to December 2017, when Duane Ting, owner of Flyin Hawaiian Zipline, saw men on his fenced property and called Maui police.

When officers arrived, Wilson said he had a gun in his front waistband. Police lifted his shirt and found a Phoenix Arms .22 LR caliber pistol loaded with ten rounds of .22 caliber ammunition.

Wilson said he bought the gun legally in Florida in 2013. A records check revealed that the pistol was not registered in Hawaii and that Wilson had not obtained or applied for a permit to own a pistol.

The Maui County Prosecutor’s Office has charged Wilson with four counts. Two of the charges, improper storage of a firearm and improper storage of ammunition, fall under Hawaii’s “place to keep” laws.

The Paia man was also charged with violating a permit to acquire ownership of a firearm and first-degree criminal trespass.

Wilson filed two motions to dismiss the charges. On the second attempt, after the New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. ruling. v. Bruen from 2022, he successfully appealed and the venue where the complaint was to be held was dismissed in court.

Wilson claimed the place’s enforcement of laws undermined his constitutional right to protect himself in public by carrying a deadly weapon.

The judges declared that there is ‘no constitutional right of the state to carry a firearm in public’

The ruling was a unanimous 5-0 decision. Pictured: Judges Lisa M. Ginoza (left) and Sabrina Shizue McKenna (right)

However, the state appealed the dismissal and challenged Wilson’s position, arguing that Wilson did not bother to apply for a carry permit and comply with the Hawaiian permit to carry law.

Therefore, they argued, Wilson could not claim that his right to bear arms was being interfered with.

The case went to the Supreme Court, where the justices upheld Wilson’s right to challenge the constitutionality of where laws are enforced.

“A criminal defendant has the authority to make a constitutional attack on the crime charged,” Eddins wrote.

However, he claimed that Wilson did not have standing to challenge Hawaii’s permits to carry law, as the state did not charge him with violating it and Wilson made no attempt to obtain a carry permit.

“Conventional modalities of interpretation and Hawaii’s historical tradition of firearms regulation preclude an individual right to keep and bear arms under the Hawaiian Constitution,” Eddins wrote in the 5-0 decision.

“In Hawaii, there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public.”

Furthermore, he added, “The history of the Hawaiian Islands does not include a society in which armed people move through the community to potentially combat the deadly targets of others.

The court also reversed a lower court’s dismissal of two charges filed against Paia man Christopher Wilson, 47, after he was arrested for criminal trespass while carrying an unregistered handgun.

“The Administration’s interest in reducing gun violence through reasonable gun regulations has preserved peace and tranquility in Hawaii. A freewheeling right to bear arms in public degrades other constitutional rights.”

Laws regulating firearms in public promote the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, Eddins wrote.

He also criticized Bruen, writing, “Time traveling to 1791 or 1868 to figure out how a state regulates deadly weapons — according to the Democratic design of the Constitution — is a dangerous way to look at the federal Constitution.”

The Hawaii Supreme Court consists of three Democratic governors appointed and two Republican appointed judges.