Guns in paradise: Ruling could undo strict Hawaii carry law

HONOLULU (AP) — Megan Kau takes occasional weeklong hunting trips to the Hawaiian island of Lanai, where she enjoys watching the sunrise and hearing the distant rustle of deer and mouflon sheep in the tropical wilderness, a rifle ready at her side.

As a gun owner, she also goes to shooting ranges several times a year. Those outings are the only times the attorney and Oahu native sees others with guns in this tourist mecca where strict laws make it harder to purchase firearms and restrict carrying loaded guns in public.

Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning New York's concealed weapon law will likely change things in Hawaii, too, where it's now highly unusual to see people carrying loaded weapons in public.

Some say the change will lead to more gun violence in a state that traditionally sees very little. In 2020, Hawaii had the nation's lowest rate for gun deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We’re culturally accepting, we’re racially accepting,” Kau said. “But within our culture, we’re fighters. We have passion.”

That passion can boil into physical altercations typically done “up and up” — local lingo for fistfights.

“If you’re born and raised here, you get into a fistfight, you don’t expect there to be a weapon,” Kau said.

Chris Marvin, a Hawaii resident with the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, said road rage dustups, clashes over surf spots and other confrontations are a part of life in Hawaii and are rarely fatal. He's worried that will change.

“When you introduce guns, it’s so often immediately death," he said. “Guns and aloha don’t mix.”

Under current law, county police chiefs in Hawaii have the discretion to determine whether to issue a carry permit....