AG report: Maui County residents register increasingly more firearms

Maui County’s firearm registrations, applications and imports were all up in double digits in 2023 compared with 2022, according to the Hawaiʻi Department of the Attorney General’s annual report detailing statewide and county firearm registration statistics.

Firearm registrations rose 11.56% from 7,146 to 7,972 on Maui. Applications for firearm registrations increased 23.37% from 2,691 to 3,320, and imported firearms went up 15.25% from 3,324 to 3,831, the AG’s report says.

In the 24 years of systematic record keeping from 2000 to 2023, Maui County firearm registrations went up 443.8% from 1,466 to 7,972. Applications rose 317.6% from 795 to 3,320, and imported firearms increased 497.7% from 641 to 3,831.

Statewide, a total of 23,528 personal/private firearm permit applications were processed during 2023, marking a 7.5% increase from 21,881 applications processed in 2022. Of the applications processed in 2023, 95.5% were approved and resulted in issued permits, 2.3% were “voided” (canceled/rejected for technical reasons) and 2.2% were denied due to one or more disqualifying factors.

The 22,459 permits issued statewide in 2023 cover a total of 51,807 firearms registered throughout the year, resulting in a 0.1% decrease from 51,883 firearms registered during 2022. Just over half (26,267, or 50.7%) of the firearms registered during 2023 were imported from out-of-state, with the balance accounted for by transfers of firearms that were previously registered in Hawaiʻi. Rifles and shotguns comprised 40% (20,746) and 8.9% (4,598) of total registrations, respectively. The remaining 51.1% (26,463) of firearms registered throughout 2023 were handguns.

Firearm registration activity increased dramatically over the course of the 24 years for which these data have been systematically compiled and reported. From 2000 through 2023, the number of statewide permit applications processed annually increased by 262.6%, the number of firearms annually registered leapt by 280.5%, and the number of firearms annually imported climbed 263.4%.

This year’s report does not compare firearms registration trends with firearm-related violent crimes. However, the AG’s report in 2013 did so, but found that while firearms registrations increased dramatically from 2000 to 2013, the trend for firearm-related violent crime remained fairly stable within a narrow range, and decreased substantially during the same period (2008-2012) in which registration activity increased most sharply.

The report, titled Firearm Registrations in Hawaiʻi, 2023, provides a range of additional statistics and analyses focused on firearm permits and licenses, registrations, and application denials statewide and in each of the four counties.

The full report can be downloaded from the Department of the Attorney General’s Research and Statistics website at http://ag.hawaii.gov/cpja/rs and here.