Hawaii Senator Pushing FBI-Accessible Gun Owner Database

Hawaii state senator Will Espero (D-19) is pushing a gun owner database that the state will share with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The database will “automatically notify police if an island resident is arrested anywhere else in the country.”

According to the AP, there are extant state databases that are FBI-accessible and which alert police when “school teachers and bus drivers” are arrested. But the inclusion of gun owners would be a first for any state.

Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence staff attorney Allison Anderman praised Espero’s bill, suggesting it “would make Hawaii a leader in safe gun laws.” But Kenneth Lawson–a professor at the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law–suggested the very existence of such database could be a step onto unconstitutional ground.

Lawson said Espero’s bill “[curtails a constitutional] right by requiring a name to be entered into a database without someone doing anything wrong.”

The NRA’s Amy Hunter concurred with Lawson. Hunter said, “This is an extremely dangerous bill. Exercising a constitutional right is not inherently suspicious. Hawaii will now be treating firearms as suspect and subject to constant monitoring.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.