I'mSick David -- This one's just for you!
Posted on: Friday, December 4, 2009
Gun registrations in Hawaii on record pace
Ownership nearly doubled from 2000 to 2008, with 26,000 purchased last
Hawai'i residents have registered guns at a record pace for each of the past four years, and appear headed for a new high again this year, preliminary figures show.
Nearly 26,000 firearms " an annual record " were registered with the four county police departments during 2008.
Yearly gun registrations in Hawai'i have marched steadily upward for most of the past decade " from about 13,600 in 2000 to 25,996 in 2008 " said Paul Perrone, chief of research and statistics for the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General.
Hawai'i firearms dealers and Hawaii Rifle Association officials say the rise in gun ownership here is in line with a similar trend across much of the Mainland.
They attribute the increase in gun sales to a combination of factors, most notably the two Persian Gulf Wars, the terrorist attack on New York City and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, and most recently, the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States and fears he might back a prohibition on future sales of certain types of firearms.
Harvey Gerwig II, president and a director of the Hawaii Rifle Association, attributes the increase in gun sales to how Americans feel about their country and their leaders.
"When people don't feel confident about the direction the country is going, they look for another way to up their confidence level," Gerwig said.
recent increase
The number of firearms registered here each year may be just a fraction of those actually in Hawai'i. Perrone said police estimate there could be approximately one for every man, woman and child in the state.
"Firearms Registrations in Hawaii, 2008" a report authored by Perrone and released in June, says that the biggest increase in gun registrations occurred last year, when Hawai'i's economy tanked.
The state's unemployment rate is the highest it has been in more than a decade and the local economy is in a prolonged slump, but even in lean times Hawai'i residents have found the money to buy handguns and rifles.
The 25,996 firearms registered last year was a 19 percent increase from 2007.
Much of the growth in firearms registrations here took place during the past four years.
Unlike most states, Hawai'i does not require potential gun purchasers to pass an "instant criminal background check," because Hawai'i gun registration laws are among the most stringent in the country and go well beyond the instant check.
But some gun dealers here have would-be gun buyers undergo the instant check to quickly see if there is anything in the buyer's background that would prohibit them from buying a gun.
The number of people in Hawai'i applying for an instant criminal background check jumped by 37 percent during the first nine months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to data collected by the FBI and reported by Bloomberg News.
More here:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091204/NEWS01/912040344?source=rss_localnews