STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2110

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2346

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2346 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FIREARMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Law Enforcement to hold a voluntary firearm buyback program in each county in the State.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Law Enforcement and one individual.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from twenty individuals.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Firearms Coalition and five individuals.

Your Committee finds that Hawaii has seen a significant increase in incidents of gun violence, a trend that until recently was primarily confined to the continental United States. Your Committee additionally finds that the overwhelming success of a recent gun buyback event on Oahu by the Department of Law Enforcement illustrated the demand of the public to get guns off of the State's streets, with a total of four hundred ninety-four firearms being turned in, including sawed-off shotguns, a MAC-10, an Uzi, pistols with silencers, and multiple assault weapons, such as AK-47 and AR-15 type rifles. This measure will expand the buyback program to remove guns from every county in the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Removing language that would have required the Department of Law Enforcement to adopt rules in accordance with chapter 91, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to implement the Firearm Buyback Program;

(2) Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2042, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

Your Committee notes that the Senate Draft 1 of this measure contains an unspecified appropriation amount. Should your Committee of Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it considers inserting an appropriation amount of $825,000 for fiscal year 2024-2025.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2346, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2346, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

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GLENN WAKAI, Chair