On Wednesday, Hawaii's Supreme Court declared that the right to bear arms clashes with the “spirit of Aloha.”
The stunning declaration came following a ruling that a man charged with carrying a firearm without a permit in 2017 is still criminally liable. The decision by Hawaii's top court came in spite of the United States Supreme Court's landmark ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which curtailed many state imposed restrictions on carrying firearms in public.
As Mediaite reports:
Its decision was based on the Court's interpretation of Article I, Section 17 of Hawaii's constitution, which “mirrors the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
“We read those words differently than the current United States Supreme Court. We hold that in Hawai'i there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public,” began the Court at the top of its opinion before going on to assert that “the spirit of Aloha clashes with a federally-mandated lifestyle that lets citizens walk around with deadly weapons during day-to-day activities.”
The court's dubious opinion continued:
The history of the Hawaiian Islands does not include a society where armed people move about the community to possibly combat the deadly aims of others.
The Government's interest in reducing firearms violence through reasonable weapons regulations has preserved peace and tranquility in Hawai'i. A free-wheeling right to carry guns in public degrades other other constitutional rights.
The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, encompasses a right to freely and safely move in peace and tranquility. Laws regulating firearms in public preserve ordered liberty and advance these rights.
There is no individual right to keep and bear arms under Article I, Section 17. So there is no constitutional right to carry a firearm in public for possible self-defense.
It remains unclear how the “spirit of Aloha” can override the decisions made by the Supreme Court.
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