Prohibits importation, manufacture, possession, sale, barter, trade, gift, transfer, or acquisition of any .50 BMG rifle or .50 BMG cartridge.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. Section 134-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding two new definitions to be appropriately inserted and to read as follows:

"".50 BMG Rifle" means a center fire rifle that can fire a .50 BMG cartridge and is not an automatic firearm. However, a ".50 BMG rifle" does not include any antique firearm nor any curio or relic as those terms are used in 18 United States Code §921(16) or 27 Code of Federal Regulations 178.11.

".50 BMG cartridge" means a cartridge that includes ball, tracer, incendiary, armor piercing, armor piercing incendiary, armor piercing incendiary tracer, or sabotaged light armor penetrator and is designed and intended to be fired from a center fire rifle and that meets all of the following criteria:

SECTION 2. Section 134-8, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§134-8 Ownership, etc., of automatic firearms, silencers, etc., prohibited; penalties. (a) The manufacture, possession, sale, barter, trade, gift, transfer, or acquisition of any of the following is prohibited: assault pistols, except as provided by section 134-4(e); automatic firearms; rifles with barrel lengths less than sixteen inches; shotguns with barrel lengths less than eighteen inches; cannons; mufflers, silencers, or devices for deadening or muffling the sound of discharged firearms; hand grenades, dynamite, blasting caps, bombs, or bombshells, or other explosives; or any type of ammunition or any projectile component thereof coated with teflon or any other similar coating designed primarily to enhance its capability to penetrate metal or pierce protective armor; and any type of ammunition or any projectile component thereof designed or intended to explode or segment upon impact with its target.

(b) Any person who installs, removes, or alters a firearm part with the intent to convert the firearm to an automatic firearm shall be deemed to have manufactured an automatic firearm in violation of subsection (a).

(c) The manufacture, possession, sale, barter, trade, gift, transfer, or acquisition of detachable ammunition magazines with a capacity in excess of ten rounds which are designed for or capable of use with a pistol is prohibited. This subsection shall not apply to magazines originally designed to accept more than ten rounds of ammunition which have been modified to accept no more than ten rounds and which are not capable of being readily restored to a capacity of more than ten rounds.

(d) After July 1, 2006, no person shall bring or cause to be brought into the State a .50 BMG rifle or .50 BMG cartridge. No .50 BMG rifle or .50 BMG cartridge may be sold or transferred on or after July 1, 2006, to anyone within the State other than a dealer licensed under section 134-32 or the chief of police of any county, except that any person who obtains title by bequest or intestate succession to a .50 BMG rifle registered within the State shall, within sixty days, render the weapon permanently inoperable, sell or transfer the weapon to a licensed dealer or the chief of police of any county, or remove the weapon from the State.

(e) Except as provided by this section, the manufacture, possession, sale, barter, trade, gift, transfer, or acquisition of any .50 BMG rifle or .50 BMG cartridge is prohibited. This includes the following types of ammunition: ball, tracer, incendiary, armor piercing, armor piercing incendiary, armor piercing incendiary tracer, or sabotaged light armor penetrator.

[(d)] (f) Any person violating subsection (a) or (b) shall be guilty of a class C felony and shall be imprisoned for a term of five years without probation. Any person violating subsection (c) shall be guilty of a misdemeanor except when a detachable magazine prohibited under this section is possessed while inserted into a pistol in which case the person shall be guilty of a class C felony. Any person violating subsection (d) or (e) shall be guilty of a class B felony and shall be imprisoned for a term of ten years without probation."

SECTION 3. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.