STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1558

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 31

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 31 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FIREARMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to raise the maximum age of minors for which safe storage of firearms is required from sixteen to eighteen years.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition and five individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Firearms Coalition, National Rifle Association, and twenty-one individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Office of the Public Defender.

Your Committee finds that an estimated four million six hundred thousand children and adolescents in the United States live in homes with at least one unsecured firearm and that the presence of unsecured firearms in the home increases the risk of unintentional and intentional shootings. Furthermore, the United States Secret Service and the United States Department of Education report that in sixty-eight percent of deadly school shootings, the attacker obtained the firearm from the attacker's home or that of a relative. In addition, over seventy-five percent of firearms used in suicide attempts and unintentional firearm injuries among children and adolescents were stored in the residence of the victim, a relative, or a friend. This measure raises the age for which safe storage of firearms is required in a home to prevent minors from having access to firearms and possibly causing injury to themselves or others.

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. 31, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

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KARL RHOADS, Chair