(UnitedVoice.com) – In 2022, the Supreme Court expanded gun laws in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen. The precedent also created a new framework for courts to use to evaluate Second Amendment cases. One of them dictates that the courts must decide if a law is “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” The Hawaiian Supreme Court recently issued a ruling that snubbed part of the high court’s ruling.
On February 7, Hawaii’s high court borrowed a quote from the hit HBO show “The Wire,” stating, “The thing about the old days, they the old days.” The quote was directed at the test in the Bruen decision, basically implying the culture in the 1700s when the US was founded should not dictate the laws now.
The case, Hawaii v. Wilson, involved the 2017 arrest of Christopher Wilson for trespassing and carrying a firearm and ammunition in public. The defendant bought his gun in Florida in 2013, but he did not register it in Hawaii as is required by state law. Police arrested Wilson after a Maui landowner found a group of men on his property at night. When officers arrived, Wilson had the gun in the waistband of his pants.
Wilson filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him because he claimed that it violated the Second Amendment. He said that he had the right to self-defense. His motion was dismissed, but after the Bruen decision, he filed another motion to dismiss.
A judge granted Wilson’s request, but the state appealed the decision, and that’s how it landed in front of the state Supreme Court.
In addition to the shot at the SCOTUS’ test for gun laws, the state’s high court also stated that in Hawaii, “there is no constitutional right to carry a firearm in public.” The justices, three Democratic-appointed and two Republican-appointed, reversed the lower court’s ruling.
Wilson’s attorneys are considering their next steps.
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