Report Title:

Relating to Firearm Safety

WHEREAS, the number of unintentional firearms injuries to children nationally has decreased dramatically over the last two decades, primarily due to increased recognition for the need for gun safety, but there are still avoidable, unintentional shootings of children; and

WHEREAS, the National Rifle Association's Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program has won awards and honors, including awards from the United States Senate; National Safety Council; American Legion's National Committee on Education; National School Public Relations Association; the governors of Alabama, California, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin; and the legislatures of Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia; and

WHEREAS, in a nation that has become increasingly urbanized, firearm safety education is lacking, despite the prevalence of firearms; and

WHEREAS, the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program has been shown to be an effective method of teaching firearms avoidance behavior to grade-school children; and

WHEREAS, in Hawaii, the Eddie Eagle Program is a statewide child gun safety program provided free by the Hawaii Rifle Association; the program provides a structured, fundamental, nonjudgmental public safety message for elementary school children, and community agencies and organizations; and

WHEREAS, the Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition is a statewide community-based nonprofit organization that works to prevent and reduce injuries to children in Hawaii; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, that the Department of Health's Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition is requested to convene a working group to evaluate and recommend measures, short of a governmental mandate, to encourage the use of firearms safety programs such as the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition, in conducting its evaluation, is requested to examine innovative measures relied upon in other jurisdictions to prevent and reduce firearms injuries to children; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition is requested to include in the working group representatives from firearm dealers, organized firearm owner and hunting organizations, parent groups, emergency medical personnel, elementary school teachers, and law enforcement; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition transmit its findings and recommendations to the Legislature no later than twenty days before the convening of the Regular Session of 2002; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Executive Director of the Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition, the Director of Health, the Prosecuting Attorney of each county, the Chief of Police of each county, and the Attorney General, who in turn is requested to transmit copies of this Resolution to representatives of organizations representing firearm dealers, firearm owners and hunters, parent groups, and emergency medical personnel.