From Daily Mail: Hawaii is now the first state to monitor gun owners through a federal criminal record database. The state’s Governor David Ige signed a bill that allows the police to enroll gun owners, who are already required to register their firearms, in a FBI database known as ‘Rap Black’.
Governor Ige
When a gun owner from the state is arrested anywhere in the US, county police departments will be notified before evaluating whether the person can legally continue to own the weapons.
The state has also passed two laws barring stalkers and those convicted of sexual assault from gun ownership. Gun owners diagnosed with mental disorders will also have to surrender their firearms.
The US has been gripped by a revitalized debate surrounding stricter gun control laws in the wake of the Orlando shooting, with Democratic lawmakers staging a sit-in at the House of Representatives this week.
Hawaii has become the first state to put gun owners on FBI’s Rap Back, which has previously been used to monitor teachers and daycare workers or specific people under investigation. The law, which takes effect immediately, allows police in Hawaii to evaluate whether a firearm owner should continue to possess a gun after being arrested.
On Thursday, Ige said: ‘This is about our community’s safety and responsible gun ownership. This bill has undergone a rigorous legal review process by our Attorney General’s office and we have determined that it is our responsibility to approve this measure for the sake of our children and families.’
State Senator Will Espero introduced the bill and called it ‘common sense legislation that does not hurt anyone’. He also suggested the law could be adopted in another states, but Amy Hunter, a spokesperson for the National Rifle Association has already branded it ‘extreme’.
Will Espero
The law could affect gun owners outside Hawaii, because the state requires visitors carrying guns to register, Hunter said. As a result, they could be added to ‘Rap Back’ because they arrived in the state with a gun, she said. The Hawaii attorney general’s office said a weapon-carrying visitor should be able to petition for removal from the national database after leaving the state.
Two additional laws were passed in Hawaii. HB 625 includes stalking and sexual assault on the list of criminal offenses that disqualify someone from owning a gun. HB 2632 requires gun owners to voluntarily surrender their weapons if they have been diagnosed with behavioral, emotional or mental disorders.
Emergency or involuntary hospitalizations in psychiatric facilities are also included. If gun owners do not automatically give up their guns upon receiving a written notice, the Chief of Police has the right to seize them.
DCG
