Gun control in Hawaii: a case study and example for others to follow.

The gun lobby likes to rattle on and on about how criminals will always get guns and gun control is useless. They often cite Chicago as an example (omitting the fact that St Louis and New Orleans, with lax gun laws, have higher rates of homicide) of the failure of gun control. Of course, since guns can be trafficked pretty easily from one place to another, tight laws in one jurisdiction can be undercut by loose laws in neighboring areas.

All this makes Hawaii an interesting case study for gun control, because unlike Chicago, it is pretty difficult to just carry guns into Hawaii illegally.

Hawaii has very good gun laws. In fact, if we could get Hawaii's laws passed nationwide, there would likely be a significant drop in needless death. It might even be enough to get our rates of gun violence and homicide in line with international standards (or at least not way off the chart like we are now).

Some highlights:
--you need a license to buy a gun.
--a gun license requires a background check, a mental health affadavit, and, for first-time purchasers, fingerprints and a photo.
--there is a ten day waiting period
--each handgun purchase requires a separate license
--all guns are registered
--in order to get a concealed carry permit, you need to show some kind of need, beyond just "I want to walk around with a gun"
--Assault weapons ban, and limit on hangun magazines to 10 rounds.

What's also useful is the fact that Hawaii changed it's laws in 1981, and a study was done, documenting the fact that the newly tightened gun laws measurably reduced the level of gun violence.
http://home.uchicago.edu/~ludwigj/papers/UCLF-HawaiianExperience-2005

Overall, Hawaii is a great model for what it actually takes to get gun violence under control. Now, I'm sure some gun troll will be here to tell us all that as long as the GOP controls the house, there's no chance of getting any of this stuff passed nationally. But this is a long term fight, and it's important to have a vision of what reasonable and effective gun laws can accomplish.