State-Wide Annual Firearm Statistics

Firearm statistics have been released from the Department of the Attorney General’s statewide annual report for 2014.

Throughout the entire state in 2014, 19,365 personal and private firearm permit applications were processed. Officials say this is a number that has decreased for the first time since 2006, coming off of a record high year in 2013 where 22,765 applications were processed.

In 2014, 18,296, or 94.5 percent, of the applications processed were approved, resulting in permits. Another 921, or 4.8 percent, of applications were approved, but those were voided when original applicants did not return for their permits in the allotted time. Only 0.8 percent, or a total of 148 applications, were denied due to at least one disqualifying factor. The denied application percentage is a record low.

Registered firearms decreased in 2014, as the 18,296 permits issued cover a total of 48,324 firearms registered. This is a decrease of 20.5 percent from the record high total in 2013 of 60,757.

More than half of the firearms registered in 2014, 53.3 percent, or 25,772 firearms, were from out-of-state. The other 46.7 percent, or 22,552 firearms, were transfers that were previously registered in Hawai’i.

Last year’s decrease in firearm activity shows only part of the actual picture. Officials say that firearm activity has actually increased dramatically in the past 14 years. From 2000 to 2014, permit application processes annually have gone up by 298.4 percent, the number of firearms registered rose 354.9 percent, and the number of firearms imported has surged by 356.6 percent.

Registrants of firearms may not provide falsified information on firearm permit applications. Those who do will face a misdemeanor charge in Hawai’i. If the information falsified has to do with criminal or mental health histories, the offense is considered a felony.

According to officials, of the 148 denied applications in 2014, 118 of them involved criminal or mental health information that was falsified. Another 2 percent, or just 3 of the denials, involved falsified information that did not have to do with criminal or mental health information, and 18.2 percent, or 27 of the denials, did not have falsified information.

Those interested in reading the full report can visit the Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division website.