Senate Bills Relating to Firearm Registration and Ag Buildings Pass Final Reading

Hawaiʻi State Capitol. PC: Hawaiʻi Senate Majority

The Hawai‘i State Senate passed final reading SB3054 SD2 HD1 and SB2701 HD2 relating to firearm registration and agricultural buildings, respectively.

Senate Bill 5054 requires every person who permanently moves firearms out of the State to contact the county police department where the firearms are registered to notify that particular police department that the firearms have been moved out of the State within five days of their removal from the State. It imposes a fine of $100 per firearm for violations.

The bill states that “The legislature finds that the State has some of the strongest gun safety laws in the nation. However, based on the recent report by the legislative reference bureau on statistical data relating to firearms, there is no accurate data on the number of firearms in the State. This is in part because currently there is no reporting mechanism for the firearms that are moved out of the State, but only for those being transferred into the State.

“The purpose of this Act is to amend the mandates of section 10 134-3, Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes, to include providing 11 notification of permanently removing firearms from the State.”

The vote was 20-2, with Senators Kurt Fevella and Gil Riviere in opposition.

Senate Bill 2701 grants county agencies the right to enter property to investigate agricultural buildings for violations of and compliance with building permit and building code exemption requirements.

The Senate also passed on final reading SB2877 SD1 HD2 and SB2878 HD2 relating to mental health counselors and massage therapy, respectively.

Senate Bill 2877 clarifies that the practicum internship experience requirement to be included with the course work in counseling requirement for mental health counselors. It also clarifies that the supervised mental health practicum intern experience requirement is a total of 300 hours of supervised client contact across two academic terms. It permits applicants to fulfill all or part of their face-to-face clinical supervision requirement by a videoconference service.

Senate Bill 2878 requires the Board of Massage Therapy to adopt and enforce sanitation rules for massage therapy establishments. It repeals existing statutory language that classifies unlicensed activity as a petty misdemeanor in favor of existing statutes that treat unlicensed activity as a misdemeanor, and increases the fines for violations of the laws regulating massage therapy.