STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3762

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2709

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 2709, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE UNIFORM PROBATE CODE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require a personal representative to notify the police department of the appropriate county of any and all firearms in an estate; and

(2) Prohibit an estate from closing unless the police department of the appropriate county certifies that all registered firearms in the estate and other firearms of which the police department has been notified are properly transferred or disposed of in accordance with chapter 134, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Honolulu Police Department. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Firearms Coalition.

Your Committee finds that on January 19, 2020, two police officers were shot and killed while responding to an apparent landlord-tenant dispute in Honolulu. Although the suspected shooter was not a registered firearm owner in Hawaii, the landlord of the property where the suspected shooter lived allegedly kept firearms belonging to the landlord's deceased husband at the property. Your Committee further finds that if these firearms, which may have been used in the fatal shooting, had been properly registered in the State and properly possessed by the landowner, law enforcement would have been aware of their presence and perhaps better prepared to respond to emergency calls at the residence.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of December 1, 2020; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2709, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2709, H.D. 2, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

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KARL RHOADS, Chair