The Hawaii Supreme Court issued a decision<\/a> on Wednesday formally infringing on island residents\u2019 right to keep and bear arms because justices claimed guns interfered with the \u201cSpirit of Aloha.\u201d The ruling seeks to nullify not only the authority of the Consitution but also the Supreme Court\u2019s longstanding interpretation of Americans\u2019 Second Amendment protections. <\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court held in its 2022 New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen<\/em> decision that citizens\u2019 constitutional right to keep and bear arms for self-defense requires no demonstration of a \u201cspecial need\u201d like New York required for its unrestricted concealed-carry licenses. Before that, the highest court in the land found in its 2008\u00a0District of Columbia v. Heller<\/em> decision that DC could not ban handgun possession in the home because, under the Second Amendment, American civilians, not just military personnel, have the right to own firearms and use them for lawful self-defense.<\/p>\n

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Justices in the Hawaii court rejected both examples of the top court\u2019s jurisprudence when they upheld a conviction for island resident Christopher Wilson, who was charged in 2017 after carrying a loaded gun without a concealed weapons permit.<\/p>\n
The state court claimed Wilson could not use Bruen<\/em> to argue his \u201cconstitutional right to protect
himself\u201d because he is not a \u201cwell-regulated militia\u201d and he did not apply for a concealed carry weapons permit (CCW). The justices claimed that, under the 1968 political interpretation of Hawaii\u2019s 1950 constitution, \u201cthe historical background of the Second Amendment indicates that the central concern in the right to bear arms was the right of the states to maintain a militia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the Hawai\u02bbi Constitution was first ratified, courts throughout the nation\u2019s history had always interpreted and applied the Second Amendment with the militia-centric view,\u201d the court wrote. \u201cThis was what everyone thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Except it was not. The Supreme Court has repeatedly<\/a> ruled that the Second Amendment describes an individual right to possess firearms, not just a military one.<\/p>\n
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Additionally, even if Wilson initiated the permit process, he almost assuredly would not have received approval. Before Bruen<\/em>, the Hawaii police chiefs in charge of issuing CCWs only awarded six in 21 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The court didn\u2019t just affirm Wilson\u2019s conviction. It also used omissions of guiding principles and law<\/a> and ahistorical, sort of fake<\/a> Warren Burger quotes<\/a> to make sweeping conclusions about the existence of gun rights based on the islands\u2019 cultural history before statehood instead of American legal tradition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe spirit of Aloha clashes with a federally-mandated lifestyle that lets citizens walk around with deadly weapons during day-to-day activities,\u201d the court wrote. \u201cThe history of the Hawaiian Islands does not include a society where armed people move about the community to possibly combat the deadly aims of others.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In invoking the whims of the \u201cHawaiian Islands\u201d instead of our nation\u2019s principles, the court admitted the broader goal of its decision was to disregard both the Supreme Court and the Constitution\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe United States Supreme Court disables the states\u2019 responsibility to protect public safety, reduce gun violence, and safeguard peaceful public movement,\u201d the justices claimed.<\/p>\n
The first line of the Hawaii court\u2019s firearm ruling acknowledges that \u201cArticle I, section 17 of the Hawai\u02bbi Constitution mirrors the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution\u201d in affirming \u201cthe right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, the justices claimed that Hawaii has \u201cno state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cConventional interpretive modalities and Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s historical tradition of firearm regulation rule out an individual right to keep and bear arms under the Hawai\u02bbi Constitution,\u201d the decision states.<\/p>\n
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Even if Hawaii\u2019s governing document did not explicitly affirm its citizens\u2019 right to bear arms as it does, Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution establishes the federal principles and laws enacted in 1787 as the \u201csupreme Law of the Land.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
The Aloha bench once again rejected the supremacy of the federal court when it claimed that its twisted interpretation of Hawaii\u2019s constitution would supersede any rights outlined by the Founding Fathers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that the proper sequence to consider matching constitutional text is to interpret the Hawai\u02bbi Constitution before its federal counterpart,\u201d the decision documents say. <\/p>\n
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Hawaii\u2019s rejection wasn\u2019t backed by philosophical reasoning or a profound understanding of the law. Rather, it was rooted in a quote about the \u201cold days\u201d from the HBO television drama series \u201cThe Wire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the world turns, it makes no sense for contemporary society to pledge allegiance to the founding era\u2019s culture, realities, laws, and understanding of the Constitution,\u201d the justices wrote. \u2018The thing about the old days, they the old days.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Hawaii court\u2019s scrutiny of the Supreme Court for \u201chandpick[ing] history to make its own rules\u201d didn\u2019t stop at guns. It also included a jab at \u201cthe Dobbs<\/em> majority\u201d for using \u201chistorical fiction\u201d to repeal Roe v. Wade<\/em> in 2022.<\/p>\n
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There\u2019s no doubt that the activist Hawaii court\u2019s Feb. 7 decision sets a dangerous precedent. The justices\u2019 blatant disregard for the superiority of the Supreme Court and the Constitution not only poses a grave threat to Americans\u2019 rights. But, if left unchecked, it could easily inspire other blue states that disagree with the nation\u2019s founding principles to defy much more than the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n
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